An investigation into composite sandwich beams in 3-point bend test

Abstract

The objective of this project is to investigate the structural behavior of the sandwich composite beam that is subjected to three-point bending. This project consists of three main parts: the fabrication of sandwich composite beam specimens, experimental three-point bending test on the fabricated specimens and validation of results of finite element analysis using experimental results. Five different specimens were fabricated with two different core thicknesses (25.4mm and 50.8mm) and one of them with local reinforcement. All the specimens were subjected to a three-point bending test using the Instron 5569 Universal Testing Machine. Two of the specimens suffer from brittle failure, while the rest fail due to core indentation. Results from the experimental testing also showed that specimens with the local reinforcement were able to withstand a higher load than others. ABAQUS software was used to carry out finite element analysis of the five different specimens undergoing the three-point bending test. Although the FEM results obtained show that there are differences with the experimental result, it does give a sense of how the specimens will respond/perform in an actual experiment setting. Results obtained from FEM also show that stress level was higher at the mid-section of the top and bottom surface.