Improving the bending strength and energy absorption of corrugated sandwich composite structure

The bending strength, stiffness and energy absorption of corrugated sandwich composite structure were investigated to explore novel designs of lightweight load-bearing structures that are capable of energy absorption in transportation vehicles. Key design parameters that were considered include fibre type, corrugation angle, core-sheet thickness, bond length between core and face-sheets, and foam inserts. The results revealed that the hybridization of glass fibres and carbon fibres (50:50) in face-sheets was able to achieve the equivalent specific bending strength as the facet-sheets made entirely of carbon fibre composites. Increasing the corrugation angle and the core sheet thickness improved the specific bending strength of the sandwich structure, while increasing the bond length led to a reduction in the specific bending strength. The hybrid composite coupons with foam insertion showed medium energy absorption, ranging between the glass fibre and the carbon fibre composite coupons, but the highest crush force efficiency among all designs.