The effect of coupling responses in face sheet in the bending of composite sandwich beam

• Main Author: Teo, Eddie Chee Kiat
• Other Authors: Chai Gin Boay
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Aeronautical engineering::Materials of construction
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/72354
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

As composite structures are increasingly being used in the aviation industry, it is critical to understand the structural behaviours of these modern materials. It is common to have the carbon fibre face sheets in composites to have certain orientations to achieve the desired properties. Hence, this report aims to investigate the effect of coupling responses of the face sheets acted on by bending loads which are commonly encountered in aerodynamics. To investigate the coupling responses, a four point bending experiment was done using both carbon fibre beams and composite sandwich beams. The effect of the coupling responses could easily be seen on the carbon fibre beams but not on the composite sandwich beams. A finite element method software, Abaqus/CAE, was then employed to simulate the experiments. The carbon fibre beam experiments were used to validate the simulated results from Abaqus/CAE. This gives the assurance of the accuracy and reliability of the software and that further studies could be continued on the software. The results were compiled and correlations were presented in graphical formats. The significant findings from these results were then analysed. Concluding the report are the limitations in the experiment and recommendations for future work and development which would allow for better measurement techniques to be employed.