Nonlinear static analysis of truss core sandwich beams in three-point bending test

Abstract

: An analysis of sandwich beams with truss core is an important issue in many fields of industry such as civil engineering, automotive, aerospace or maritime. The objective of the present study is a nonlinear static response of sandwich beams subjected to the three-point bending test configuration. The beams are composed of two parent components: upper and lower laminated face sheets (unidirectional tape) and a pyramidal truss core manufactured by means of 3D printing. A polyamide filament strengthened with chopped carbon fibres – CF-PA-12 is used for the core development. The both, experimental and numerical analyses are presented. A detailed numerical model of the sandwich beam was developed in Abaqus software. The numerical model considers modelling of the adhesive joint with an additional layer of material placed between the parent components of the beam. A continuum hybrid solid shell elements were used to model the adhesive layer. In addition, a special care was taken to use an appropriate material model for the CF-PA-12 filament. To do so, the uniaxial tensile tests were performed on 3D printed samples. Having acquired the test data, a hyperelastic material model was evaluated based on a curve fitting approach.