Impact Behaviors of Sandwich Composites Produced by Liquid Resin Infusion: Influences of the Process Parameters
Résumé
This article presents the results of research on sandwich materials manufactured by liquid resin infusion and designed to resist in low-velocity/low-energy impact applications. The sandwich plates are made of composites skins (GFRP) on a foam core. A manufacturing method was designed to produce samples in a one-shot process. Four manufacturing parameters were selected and combined: resin’s temperature, preform’s temperature, hardener type, and presence of nanoscaled additives. Their influences on the behavior of the samples during impact and the resulting damages were investigated. For each manufactured plate, nine samples were impacted with a 10 J drop-weight tower. Impacted samples were inspected with two nondestructive testing methods, visual inspection and infrared thermography. Samples were cut afterward to confirm conclusions and observe in-depth damages. Two impact behaviors and three damage types have been identified among all tested samples. The impact properties of the samples can be directly linked to the processing conditions. To ensure uniform mechanical properties, plates should be manufactured with isothermal conditions (same temperature in the preform and in the resin). If the manufacturing temperature is high enough, there is no significant influence on the impact behavior of the sandwich samples using slow or standard hardener. The higher the infusion temperature is, the more brittle the resulting composite. With nanoadditives in isothermal conditions, the resin’s viscosity is much higher, leading to a longer infusion and nonuniform properties.