Finite Element Fatigue Analysis of Sandwich Structure with Hybrid Composites as Facings

The fatigue analysis behaviour for sandwich structure of hybrid composites is observed by performing three-point bending simulation according to ASTM C 393 using Finite Element Analysis. A total of nine configurations of composite sandwich sets are made based on four different types of skin materials, by keeping polyurethane foam as a constant core material for all the nine configurations. The Inverse Reserve Factor for epoxy/carbon-PUF-polyester/glass combination was found to be 0.96067 and 1.441 for 2000 N and 3000 N at 1 Hz cyclic load application respectively and 0.96778 and 1.4517 for polyester/glass-PUF-polyester/glass combination respectively. Fatigue analysis on hybrid combination of epoxy/glass-PUF-epoxy/Carbon was simulated and found no improvement in fatigue properties. However, epoxy/carbon was found to fail at 3000 N and exhibited greater bending strength and fatigue properties. On comparison, epoxy/carbon was found to have better fatigue properties compared to polyester/glass-PUF-polyester/glass and hybrid combination.