Numerical and Experimental Investigations on Mechanical Behavior of Composite Corrugated Core

Abstract

Tensile and flexural characteristics of corrugated laminate panels were studied using numerical and analytical methods and compared with experimental data. Prepreg laminates of glass fiber plain woven cloth were hand-laid by use of a heat gun to ease the creation of the panel. The corrugated panels were then manufactured by using a trapezoidal machined aluminium mould. First, a series of simple tension tests were performed on standard samples to evaluate the material characteristics. Next, the corrugated panels were subjected to tensile and three-point bending tests. The force-displacement graphs were recorded. Numerical and analytical solutions were proposed to simulate the mechanical behavior of the panels. In order to model the energy dissipation due to delamination phenomenon observed in tensile tests in all members of corrugated core, plastic behavior was assigned to the whole geometry, not only to the corner regions. Contrary to the literature, it is shown that the three-stage mechanical behavior of composite corrugated core is not confined to aramid reinforced corrugated laminates and can be observed in other types such as fiber glass. The results reveal that the mechanical behavior of the core in tension is sensitive to the variation of core height. In addition, for the first time, the behavior of composite corrugated core was studied and verified in bending. Finally, the analytical and numerical results were validated by comparing them with experimental data. A good degree of correlation was observed which showed the suitability of the finite element model for predicting the mechanical behavior of corrugated laminate panels.

The mechanics of composite corrugated structures: A review with applications in morphing aircraft

“…As an extension to this work, Dayyani et al [38] studied the tensile behaviour of corrugated laminates made of plain woven glass/epoxy. Contrary to the literature they observed the occurrence of delamination in all of the members of the corrugated unit cell, not only to the corner regions, and evidence that the three-stage mechanical behavior of composite corrugated core is not confined to aramid laminates and can be observed in other types of laminates.…”

“…Dayyani et al [38] studied the flexural characteristics of a composite corrugated sheet using numerical and analytical methods and validated the results by comparing them to the experimental data. A good degree of correlation was observed in their work which evidenced the suitability of the analytical method and finite element model to predict the mechanical behaviour of the corrugated sheet in the linear and nonlinear phases of deformation.…”

Corrugation Reinforced Composites: A Method for Filling Holes in Material‐Property Space

“…It is worth noting at this time that this study strictly focuses on a sinusoidal corrugated structure. This sinusoidal corrugated geometry is commonly used in the study of corrugated materials, [12][13][14]18,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] however it is not the only corrugated geometry used and many other studies use trapezoidal corrugations, [15,19,20] and circular corrugations. [14][15][16] All of these corrugation geometries display similar increasing work hardening behavior when loaded in tension and the main difference between the geometries lies in the manner and location in which the unbending is focused, the amount of force required to unbend to a certain degree and the corresponding strain at which complete unbending has occurred.…”

“…Utilization of the corrugated geometry has been shown to have potential to increase the necking strain of a material as a result of the unbending of the corrugation during loading. As outlined in the review paper by Dayyani et al, [10] this improved elongation in the longitudinal direction coupled with high transverse stiffness has made the corrugated geometry an excellent candidate in the construction industry, the packaging industry in the form of corrugated board, as explored in Luo et al [11] and Gilchrist et al, [12] and more recently in the aerospace industry for use in morphing wings, as studied by Ge et al, [13] Xia et al, [14] Kress and Winkler, [15] Yokozeki et al, [16] and Park et al [17] Studies of isolated corrugations or corrugated sandwich structures by Thill et al, [18] Dayyani et al, [19] Bouaziz, [20] Boke, [21] and Fraser et al [22] found that when subjected to a tensile load the stress-strain response is characterized by initially low levels of stress followed by increasing work hardening behavior that can be attributed to the unbending corrugation, followed by normal plastic behavior of the material once the corrugation is straightened. Ultimately, this leads to the material necking at a larger value of strain compared to a straight sample.…”

Effect of varying geometrical parameters of trapezoidal corrugated-core sandwich structure

“…Honeycomb is lightweight, high flexural stiffness and can support classical loadings like tension and bending. Applications of corrugated-core sandwich structure have been used in aerospace and automotive industries, marine ship and civil due to their high strength to weight ratio [6][9] [15]. Previously, Mohammadi et al [16] proposed analytical formulation for trapezoidal corrugated panels.…”