Utilization of the Composite Panels reinforced with 3D Spacer Weft-knitted Fabrics in Lightweight Building Constructions

Composite panels are mostly considered to be as one of the high potential substitutes for the conventional materials used in building industries. The importance of constructing such light-weight and sustainable materials which could be suitable for building applications, has been attracted the designers and engineering’s attentions toward the novel composite structures reinforced with 3D spacer fabrics which are called as the advanced composites. Due to their unique geometrical structures, these composite materials are known to have such desirable mechanical performance against different kinks of external loaded when they are used as the walls and roofs of a given building. This paper is mainly focused on the manufacturing technique employed in fabricating the 3D spacer weftknitted fabrics as the newly known composite reinforcements with high potential applications. The net-shape structure and three dimensional geometric of the resulted composite panels reinforced with these fabrics, made them suitable to resist against the compression and bending loads. Moreover, it should be noticed that the fatigue behavior of a given structure subjected to the prolonged or periodic loads would eventually lead to deteriorate its mechanical performance. The investigations through this research revealed that the 3D spacer weft-knitted fabrics composite panels, do their best during technical applications such as buildings.

Keywords:

Composite panels , 3D spacer fabrics , weft- knitting technology , mechanical performance