Sandwich panels with carbon fiber fabric/epoxy resin face-sheet and aluminum foam core have a potential application value in the engineering field. To study the bending mechanical properties of the reinforced sandwich structure, three-point bending test was conducted by using WDW-T100 electronic universal tensile testing machine. The relation between load and displacement of the aluminum foam sandwich was obtained. Deformations and failure modes of the specimens were recorded. Scanning electron microscopy was used to observe the failure mechanism. Results showed that when aluminum foam was reinforced by carbon fiber fabric as face-sheet, its flexural load-carrying capacity and energy absorption ability improved significantly. Foam core density and number of carbon fiber plies had serious impacts on the peak load value and energy absorption value of the composite structure. It was suggested that aluminum foam core sandwich structure with low foam core density of 0.49 g/cm3 and 5 plies of carbon fiber fabric had the highest energy absorption ability and medium load-carrying ability. Failure modes analysis showed that shear failure leaded to the final failure of sandwich panels with medium peak load and interface de-bonding leaded to the final failure of sandwich panels with high peak load.

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Aluminum foam sandwich structure is a new type of composite material with excellent mechanical and functional properties. As it is known that properties of aluminum foam sandwiches (AFS) vary if the foam core is sandwiched between different face sheets. To study the effects of face-sheet materials on the mechanical properties of AFS and enable a better understanding of the usage of such AFS structures under flexural load, AFS sandwiched by 6061-aluminum alloy face-sheets and 304 stainless steel face-sheets were fabricated and investigated under three-point bending by using WDW-T100 electronic universal tensile testing machine. Results showed that 6061-aluminum alloy reinforced AFS had the same peak load value with 304-stainless steel reinforced one almost so long as the thicknesses of the face-sheet material were the same and the foam core densities were the same too, but the energy absorption ability of 304-stainless steel reinforced AFS was much higher than that of 6061-aluminum alloy reinforced. However, the integrality of the 6061-sandwiched AFS was better than 304-sandwiched AFS. Deformation modes of the two types of AFS were also discussed in the present study.

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