| Description |
xi, 65 leaves : illustrations (most colored) ; 29 cm |
| Summary |
"Composite sandwich structures are being increasingly employed in applications which require high strength, high in-plane and flexural stiffness coupled with a reduction in weight. Sandwich composites used in the aerospace industry are typically manufactured using high pressure autoclave processing which is expensive and time consuming. A viable low cost alternative is the Out-of-autoclave (OOA) process. One of the most dominant failure modes in sandwich composites is the debonding that occurs at the facesheet skin to core interphase leading to severe degradation of structural properties of the sandwich. A well formed adhesive bond at the skin to core interphase and improved adhesion strength are significant factors in preventing bond failure. The work presented in this thesis is divided into two parts. The first part is focused on the effects of moisturized adhesive film, core type, material system and variable levels of vacuum on adhesive fillet formation. Two different cores (Aluminum and Vented Aluminum) and two different material systems (from CYTEC and ACG) are evaluated. The flatwise tensile strength, climbing drum peel strength and adhesive fillet geometry of the manufactured panels are quantified. Using statistical techniques the parameters influencing the fillet geometry and bond strength are determined. The second part is focused on evaluating the bond strength for a honeycomb (Nomex) and a foam core (K-COR) manufactured using the out-of-autoclave process. The flatwise tensile strength of the manufactured panels is determined in accordance with ASTM standards. Finite element simulations of the facesheet peeling from the core under flatwise tension are conducted using the cohesive damage modeling approach. The simulation results are then compared with the experimental results for model validation"--Abstract, leaf iv. |
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