COMPOSITE HONEYCOMB CORE CRUSH IN RELATION TO INTERNAL-PRESSURE MEASUREMENT

This work evaluates the effects of processing and material parameters on the honeycomb core crush phenomena in an attempt to better understand this common, costly problem during composite manufacturing. Five suspect parameters were evaluated with a binary test matrix, and it was observed that the resin type had the largest influence on core deformation during processing. The vacuum level used for lay-up and staging was also shown to have a major influence on core deformation. In-situ and post processing internal pressure measurements revealed that the gas pressure inside the core plays an important role in determining the extent of honeycomb core crush. Collectively, these investigations provide fundamental information about the effects and interactions of material and process parameters for describing honeycomb core crush and suggest some steps to eliminate this phenomena.