Mechanical properties of fibrous core sandwich panels

Fibrous core sandwich panels are thin, lightweight structures with face sheets separated by an irregular arrangement of independent fibres; the fibres have a random angle of fibre inclination and a range of initial curvatures. These panels have small thickness so that they can be pressed into 3D curvature in a forming operation. This paper analyses the effects of core morphology on the through-thickness elastic moduli, compressive strength and the through-thickness shear strength of the fibrous core. For a specific panel construction, analytical results are compared with both Finite Element analysis and experiment. A new approach to measure the through-thickness shear modulus of fibrous core is described.