Effect of Structure on the Mechanical Behaviors of Three-Dimensional Spacer Fabric Composites

Three-dimensional (3-D) spacer fabric composite is a newly developed sandwich structure, the reinforcement of which is integrally woven by advanced textile technique. Two facesheets of 3-D spacer fabric are connected by continuous fibers, named pile in the core, providing excellent properties like outstanding integrity, debonding resistance, light weight, good designability and so on. Usually the 3-D spacer fabric composite without extra reinforcement is a kind of core material. In comparison with the facesheet reinforced spacer fabric composite, here the composite without additional weaves is called mono-spacer fabric composite. In this paper, two kinds of mono-spacer fabric composites with integrated hollow cores have been developed, one with 8-shaped piles and the other with corrugated piles. The mechanical characteristics and the damage modes of these mono-spacer fabric composites under different load conditions have been investigated. Besides, effects of pile height, pile distribution density and pile structure on the composites mechanical performances were analyzed. It is shown that the mechanical performances of mono-spacer fabric composites can be widely adapted to the respective requirements through the choice of the structural factors.