An advanced high rigidity thin sandwich composite laminate with COREMAT and dissimilar skins

Within this paper, the most important mechanical properties determined in simple tensile tests of a thin sandwich composite laminate with nonwoven polyester mat used as core and dissimilar skins are presented. This nonwoven polyester mat known as COREMAT increases the overall stiffness of a composite laminate by the increase of the entire thickness of the laminate avoiding stacking a specific number of layers. The skins are dissimilar, the upper one has a polyester reinforced RT glass fabric and the lower one is a gelcoat layer. Following main mechanical properties have been determined: stiffness, Young's modulus, load/stress/strain at maximum load, load/stress/strain at maximum extension, load/stress/strain at minimum load, load/stress/strain at minimum extension, tensile strength, work to maximum load/extension, work to minimum load/extension and load/stress at break.