Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
252388 | Composite Structures | 2012 | 8 Pages |
Sandwich materials have been used widely in various fields. However, the failure behaviour of the joints that connect the sandwich structures is not fully understood. In this paper, foam-based sandwich joints were studied under pull-out conditions through experiments and numerical analyses. Two different types of joints, with and without inserts, were examined. The experiments showed that the failure modes of sandwich joints were a combination of different failure modes, such as core shear failure, the debonding of face and potting material, composite face failure, and local failure. A finite element analysis using MSC.MARC was also conducted to predict the failure load of sandwich joints. Two methods were applied to predict the first drop of the sandwich joints: progressive failure analysis and the damage zone method. The former resulted in an acceptable prediction for a preliminary design, and the latter was shown to predict the first peak of loading curves very well.
► Failure behaviour of foam-based sandwich joints under pull-out loading is investigated. ► Core failure is the dominant failure mode in the experiments. ► Two methods are used to predict the first peak of the loading curves of the joints. ► The damage zone method provides more accurate results with a maximum error of 4.15%.