A crumb rubber modified syntactic foam

In this study, the impact response and residual strength of a crumb rubber modified syntactic foam, which contained up to 20% by volume of crumb rubbers, were investigated. The foam had a hybrid microstructure bridging over several length scales. It was formed by dispersing hollow glass beads and crumb rubber particles into a microfiber and nanoclay filled epoxy matrix. Sandwich beam specimens were prepared using the hybrid foam as core and fiber reinforced epoxy as facings. A low velocity impact test using an instrumented drop tower impact machine was conducted on the sandwich beams and control beams made of the foam only. Four-point bending tests were conducted on the impact damaged specimens and control specimens without impact damage. The effect of the hybrid foam on the low velocity impact response and residual strength was evaluated based on the test results. The stress field interaction was evaluated using a finite element analysis. It was found that the rubberized syntactic foam possessed a higher capacity to dissipate impact energy and to retain bending strength. There was a positive composite action between the hollow glass bead particles and crumb rubber particles by means of stress field interaction and reduction in stress concentration.