Effects of Cross-sectional Shape on Mechanical performances of New-designed FRP Sandwich Structures Reinforced with 3D Weft-knitted Spacer Fabrics

Improving the mechanical performances of technical composite materials along with reduction of their weight, is of the main concern especially in technical applications. 3D sandwich composites are considered as high potential choices to overcome these concerns. 3D spacer weft knitted fabrics due to their individual structure and high flexibility in designing, have found their position in this field. Since the cross sectional shape of these structure would be effective on their mechanical performances, in this paper two different 3D spacer sandwich composites including U-shaped and V-shaped structures was aimed to be compare in terms of their compression and bending strength. The results revealed that the V-shaped 3D spacer weft knitted composites, have higher ability to provide such uniform stresses distribution within the structure than the U-shaped 3D composites.

Keywords:

3D composites , Weft knitting technology , Mechanical performance , glass fibers , structural parameters