Abstract
In this paper, fracture behaviour of marine sandwich structured composite beams manufactured by vacuum-assisted resin infusion process with a PVC foam core, and different thicknesses of upper and lower glass fibre-reinforced polymer face sheets have been investigated. Fracture toughness in terms of strain energy release rate of sandwich composite beam is obtained using three end notched flexure test (3 ENF) by analytical method, finite element simulation using J integral and virtual crack closure technique (VCCT). Experimental testing has been applied with more accurate loading values for finite element modelling (FEM) simulations. The good agreement between experimental and numerical results shows that the finite element model is acceptable. A parametric study is carried out to observe the effects of core thickness, density of core, length of specimens, loading directions of the specimens on strain energy release rate (SERR) of sandwich composite beams under mode II loading. It is developed for the different core thicknesses with varying density combinations. The variations of maximum SERR value are presented graphically using numerical method and compared with analytical solution.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 191-199 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics |
| Volume | 101 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 2019 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2019 Elsevier Ltd
Keywords
- Fracture toughness
- J integral
- Sandwich composites
- Strain energy release rate
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Materials Science
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Mechanical Engineering
- Applied Mathematics