Vertically-aligned short E-glass fibre core sandwich composite: Production and evaluation

This paper reports on the production and evaluation of a new class “Z-axis” composite sandwich panel where core consists dense array vertically-aligned, 3 mm long E-glass fibre “beams”. The bundles were aligned using electrostatic charging. A procedure was developed to retain orientation short-fibre whilst they impregnated cured with an epoxy/amine resin system. skins manufactured from 4-ply carbon/epoxy prepregs layup sequence (0,90) s . out-of-plane compressive strength these Z-axis composites found be 25.2 15.2 times greater than equivalent panels made Nomex® aluminium honeycomb cores respectively. Their increase in proportion density core. Buckling fracture vertically-aligned predominant failure modes observed. shear flexural properties comparable cores.