Fabrication of Woven Honeycomb Structures for Advanced Composites

Abstract

A honeycomb woven fabric was designed and produced on a sampling loom. After weaving cells in the fabric were opened by polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) sticks and an epoxy resin was applied to fabric. For comparison half of the fabric sample was impregnated with resin without opening the cells. Resulting fabric samples were subjected to low-velocity impact test by using drop weight impact testing machine, CEAST Fractovis Plus – 7526.000. To evaluate the impact behaviour of the samples the contact force, contact time, deflection, and absorbed energy values were recorded by data acquisition system (DAS). The energy absorbed by honeycomb structure was around 7 Joule. The energy absorbed by flat sample, on the other hand, was too low and out of the detection range of the testing equipment.

Keywords

• Honeycomb fabric
• Reinforcement
• Composite
• Energy absorption