Temperature effects on the compressive properties and failure mechanisms of composite sandwich panel with Y-shaped cores

The effects of temperature on the mechanical properties and failure mechanisms of composite sandwich panel with Y-shaped cores under out-of-plane compression have been studied in this paper. The carbon fiber composite sandwich panel with Y-shaped cores was manufactured by a hot-press method using unidirectional carbon/epoxy prepregs. The out-of-plane compression tests of composite sandwich panels were conducted at temperatures ranging from 20 degrees C to 200 degrees C. Then the stress-strain curves, failure modes, compressive stiffness and strength of composite sandwich panel at high temperatures were analyzed and compared with those ones at room temperature. The results have shown that temperature had a significant effect on mechanical properties and failure behaviors of composite sandwich panel. And high temperature resulted in the decreasing of compressive stiffness and strength. Finally, the analytical expressions were presented to predict the compressive stiffness and strength of composite sandwich panel and compared with experimental results at different temperatures.