Peel strength improvement of foam core sandwich beams by epoxy resin impregnation on the foam surface

Abstract

The interfacial adhesion characteristics between foam cores and faces affect much the structural integrity of foam core sandwich structures. The peel strength between the face plate and the foam core is one of the appropriate parameters for the interfacial characteristics of sandwich structures and its peel energy is also measured for the interfacial characterization. The peel strength is the first peak force per unit width of bondline required to produce progressive separation, and the peel energy is the amount of energy per unit bonding area associated with a crack opening. In this study, to improve the peel strength between the foam core and the face plate of foam core sandwich beams, the surfaces of foam core sandwich beams were resin-impregnated. Then the peel strength as well as peel energy of resin impregnated polyurethane foam core sandwich beams were measured by the cleavage peel test and compared with those of the same sandwich beams without surface resin impregnation on the foam surface.