The flexural behavior of the epoxy and polyester based composite sandwich structures at subzero temperatures

Abstract

The present work aims at characterizing the 3D woven spacer composites with carbon fiber reinforced polymer face-sheets under the 3-point flexural test at subzero temperature conditions. For this purpose, sandwich composite panels are manufactured using vacuum assisted resin infusion method for epoxy and polyester matrix materials with 2, 3, and 4 layered face-sheets. The 3-point flexural test was performed for warp and weft direction on liquid nitrogen temperature (-40 degrees C). Macroscopic fracture morphology was examined to understand the deformation and failure mechanism. The results show that the flexural properties were significantly affected by the number of face-sheets and then from matrix material and finally from the composite direction at subzero temperatures.