Finite element analysis of composite sandwich beams in 3-point bend test

Abstract

This project reports the findings of using ANSYS as the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software in simulating isotropic unifoam beams and composite sandwich beams subjected to a 3-Point Bend Test. The version of ANSYS used was ANSYS 2022 R2 (Student) which has a limitation of 32,000 nodes.

The first part of the report consists of a literature review on the fundamental set-ups and equations of a 3-Point Bend Test, isotropic foam-like materials and composite sandwich beams. A review on past research was done and the results from a previous Final Year Project by Bryan Wee served as a benchmark for the analysis of the obtained FEA results in this report.

The second part of the report outlines the modelling methods and various boundary conditions applied to the simulation were also stated in this section. for the 3-point bend test set-up and specimen beams used in Bryan Wee’s project. Bryan Wee’s project included a physical 3-point bend test and consists of 4 test specimens which include both isotropic foam-like beams and composite sandwich beams.

The last part of the report shows the compiled results of the FEA simulations and a comparison with experimental results obtained by Bryan Wee. The FEA results for isotropic foam-like beams were favourable whereas the results for composite sandwich beams were lacking, suggesting that the modelling methods used in the report were effective but the material properties of composite sandwich beams used were not sufficient.