Impact properties of woven reinforced sandwich composite panels for automotive applications

Fiber-reinforced materials are widely used in many industrial applications including civil engineering, automotives, marine, aviation, etc. This is due to their high strength to weight ratios compared to metal structures. One of the major applications of composites is the structural components for automotives such as bumpers, fenders, hoods, door panels. For such applications, impact strength is required since it is directly related to the passenger safety requirements. Sandwich structures are extensively used in automobiles; the understanding of their behaviors under impact conditions is extremely important for the design and manufacturing of these engineering structures. In this study, 27 types of woven fabrics were produced using polyester fibers as warp threads with different structure parameters such as weft yarn material, picks densities, and weaving structures to be used as skin layers and nonwoven fabric was used as core layer. The sandwich composite specimens were prepared using the said woven fabrics with two types of thermoset resins and fabricated via the hand lay up method. The impact properties of the sandwich specimens produced were evaluated to choose the best samples performance to be used in automotive applications. It was found that the impact properties are strongly affected by woven fabric structure parameters and the resin properties.