Experimental and Numerical Analysis of Sandwich Composite Beams under Four-Point Bending

In this paper, flexural behavior of composite sandwich beams under four point bending loading has been studied experimentally and numerically. The skins and the core of the sandwich composite beam have been made of woven glass/epoxy composites and polyvinylchloride foam with 70 kg/m3 density, respectively. The experiments were performed on the beams with different lengths and two different types of layup sequence for the skins as 0/90 and ±45. Failure was initiated in the beams due to indentation of the foam and extended to the face sheet failure under the loading roller. Numerical simulation of the sandwich beam has been performed using ABAQUS commercial software to verify experimental results. During the numerical simulations, the nonlinear material models were employed for shear stress-strain behavior modeling of the foam and the face sheets. In addition, due to the large deformation during bending test geometrical nonlinearity assumption was used in FE analysis. Failure initiation was predicted in the face sheets using modified Hashin criteria. Nonlinear stress analysis and failure predictions in the face sheets and the foam were conducted using USDFLD subroutine in ABAQUS software. Also crushable foam model was employed to simulate the plastic behavior of the foam core. The load-displacement curves and failure mechanisms predicted by the numerical simulations illustrated good correlation with the experimental data.