Mechanical testing of CFRP materials for application as skins of sandwich composites

Sandwich structures are ultralight materials that are part of a special class and consist of two face skins, that are thin, light and stiff. These materials are of great interest for aeronautical and aerospace applications and they represent one of the important research directions in this field. As skins, a large variety of materials can be used, i.e. aluminium, titanium or polymeric laminates. For the evaluation of sandwich composites based on metallic foam core, a larger study is being currently conducted, one of the objectives within this study being the evaluation of the sandwich system components (CFRP skins developed by two different methods: manual lay-up/room temperature curing and prepreg processing; as well as evaluation of core materials). This paper contains technical work that presents the preliminary results regarding the evaluation of CFRP skins based on CARP/T193 carbon fiber fabric and low viscosity L20 epoxy resin (Diglycidyl Ether of Bisphenol A) developed by manual lay-up/room temperature curing. The obtained materials were tested at different mechanical loads and the failure mode was analyzed with the aim to evaluate their performances as possible skins of the sandwich structure with metallic foam core.