TY - GEN A1 - Yellur, Manoja Rao A1 - Seidlitz, Holger A1 - Kuke, Felix A1 - Wartig, Kevin A1 - Tsombanis, Nikolas T1 - A low velocity impact study on press formed thermoplastic honeycomb sandwich panels T2 - Composite Structures N2 - At present plywood structures are used in the loading area of utility structures. Low velocity impact studies on these structures showed cracks on its lower surface. Hence, in the current study low-velocity impact of a lighter honeycomb sandwich structure is investigated to satisfy the needs of the utility vehicle segment. To meet this objective, facing sheets are manufactured using the polypropylene matrix and glass fibers. Polypropylene honeycombs are used in the study. Depending on the experimental boundary conditions, a cross-ply laminate set up is used for the facing sheets. An impact energy of 100 J is chosen in the study. This energy caused visible failure on the plywood sample. Hence a lighter sandwich construction which can resist 100 J impact is implemented in this study. Influence of top and bottom facing sheet thicknesses on the amount of damage inflicted on its surfaces are studied. Experimental histories of absorbed energy and contact force are recorded. A finite element analysis is performed using LS-DYNA and numerical results are compared with the experimental responses. A honeycomb sandwich panel [0/90/90/0/Core/0/90/90/0] meeting the objective of the study is seen as an optimum replacement for the existing plywood structures. KW - Low-velocity impact KW - Sandwich panel KW - Honeycomb core KW - Finite element analysis (FEA) Y1 - 2019 UR - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263822318334743 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2019.111061 SN - 0263-8223 VL - 225 SP - 111061 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Santhanakrishnan Balakrishnan, Venkateswaran A1 - Obrosov, Aleksei A1 - Kuke, Felix A1 - Seidlitz, Holger A1 - Weiß, Sabine T1 - Influence of metal surface preparation on the flexural strength and impact damage behaviour of thermoplastic FRP reinforced metal laminate made by press forming T2 - Composites Part B: Engineering N2 - In this paper the relationship between surface energy and flexural strength of metal laminate made by reinforcing glass fibre reinforced polymer on steel surfaces was investigated. Sand blasting was performed on 22MnB5 steel surface. This steel was stacked together with layers of unidirectional glass/polyamide-6 prepreg, followed by pressing in a hot press. Influenced parameters are pressure, temperature and time. 3D profilometer analysis was used to investigate the roughness profile on the surface of the steel generated by the sand blasting. The surface energy of the steel surface was calculated from a set of contact angles measured by three different liquids. To identify the optimal surface treatment, the variation of surface energy, flexural strength and roughness of the steel surface was determined as function of the surface treatment. Surface roughness (Ra of 1.08 μm), results indicate that increasing surface roughness leads to improvement in flexural modulus. The increase further leads to decrease in flexural modulus. In addition, the influence of surface energy and flexural strength on the impact damage behaviour was investigated too. The results showed that the sample with highest flexural modulus had the lowest impact-induced damage area. KW - Fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) KW - FRP reinforced metal composite KW - Sand blasting surface treatment KW - Surface energy KW - Contact angle Y1 - 2019 UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S135983681930318X U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2019.05.094 SN - 1359-8368 VL - 173 ER -