Table of contents
1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1
1.1 Motivation ........................................................................................................ 1
1.2 Thesis objectives ............................................................................................... 2
1.3 Thesis structure ................................................................................................ 2
2 State of the art .................................................................................................... 5
2.1 Sandwich structures ......................................................................................... 5
2.1.1 Face sheets ............................................................................................ 5
2.1.2 Core ....................................................................................................... 7
2.1.3 Bonded sandwich panel ........................................................................ 8
2.1.4 Failure modes ...................................................................................... 11
2.2 Sandwich structure joints ............................................................................... 12
2.2.1 Inserts .................................................................................................. 12
2.2.2 Panel edges ......................................................................................... 15
2.2.3 Novel joint designs .............................................................................. 16
2.3 Computational analysis .................................................................................. 17
2.3.1 Finite Element Method ........................................................................ 19
2.3.2 Literature survey on sandwich panel joint modelling ......................... 22
2.4 Virtual testing ................................................................................................. 23
2.5 Assessment of the state of the art and need for further research ................. 30
3 Overall concept of mechanical characterization ................................................. 33
4 Mechanical characterization on constituent level .............................................. 35
4.1 Sandwich core ................................................................................................ 35
4.1.1 Materials ............................................................................................. 36
4.1.2 Experimental analysis .......................................................................... 39
4.1.3 Numerical modelling on meso scale .................................................... 44