Processing and property of carbon-fiber aluminum-foam sandwich with aramid-fiber composite adhesive joints

Abstract

Thin tissues (or called webs) of short aramid fibers were added at the adhesive joints between carbon-fiber face sheets and aluminum-foam core to form aramid-fiber ‘composite adhesive joints’ for improving the interfacial bonding strength of sandwich structures and therefore other structural properties. In-plane critical compression loads and failure modes of carbon-fiber aluminum-foam sandwich beams with short aramid-fiber composite adhesive joints are investigated and discussed in this study. Improvements in critical compression loads were achieved for all specimens with aramid-fiber composite adhesive joints of different densities. It is suggested that the composite adhesive joints using low-density short aramid fibers is effective in promoting reinforcements against cracking and delamination at the interface between carbon-fiber face sheets and aluminum-foam core. The underlying interfacial strengthening and toughening mechanisms were discussed and analyzed based on observations from optical image and scanning electron microscopy.

Keywords:

• aramid fiber
• interface
• mechanical testing
• fractography
• composite adhesive joints

Acknowledgment

The authors (Z. Sun and S.S Shi) would like to thank the China Scholarship Council for providing postgraduate scholarships. The authors also would like to thank the UWA Centre of Microscopy, Characterization and Analysis for the technical support to relevant SEM study, and UWA School of Mechanical Engineering for composite processing and testing.

Funding

The authors are grateful to the financial supports of the Australian Research Council, open fund of State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment [grant number S13205]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 11102032].