PHASE 1

MANUFACTURING FEASIBILITY PHASE WITH PRIMARY

FOCUS ON OPTIMIZATION OF THE ULTRA-LIGHTWEIGHT
CORE MATERIAL FABRICATION PROCESS AND PRODUCTION
OF SAMPLES FOR MECHANICAL PROPERTY ASSESSMENT BY
NASA.
BY
MAHESHWOR KC
SAI KUMAR BOMULE
SAI VEERENDRA POTLA
RAKESH BADRAJI
SYED ALI

TARGET CORE PROPERTIES

Property
Density, lb/ft3
Cell Size, in
Compressive
Strength, psi
Compressive
modulus, ksi
Crush Strength, psi
Plate shear
strength (L), psi
Plate shear
modulus (L), ksi
Plate shear
strength (W), psi
Plate shear
modulus (W), ksi
Cost of 4 X 8 X 1
panel

Targeted core
material
properties
Less than 3
N/A
1000
295
1000
640
102
370
38
<$1500

INTRODUCTION

Increasing the core thickness

greatly increases the stiffness of
the honeycomb construction,
while the weight increase is
minimal.

HONEYCOMB CELL CONFIGURATION

Flex core

Formability feasibility with reduced anticlastic

curvature and without buckling the cell walls.

Curvatures of very tight radii are easily formed.

Higher shear strength than hexagonal
honeycomb (when formed in tight radii).

CORE MATERIAL

Aramid Fiber Honeycomb:

Use HRH-10 aramid fiber for core material.
dipped in a heat-resistant phenolic resin

Features:
High strength and toughness in a small cell size
Low density nonmetallic core.

MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF HRH-10

Table : Mechanical properties of HRH-10

FABRICATION OF HONEYCOMB CORE

(STRENGTH OPTIMIZATION OF HRH-10)

Figure : Typical cross section of

Honeycomb Sandwich

Where,
Ef = the elasticity modulus of the skins
Ec = the in-plane elasticity modulus of the core
Tf = the thickness of the skins
Tc= the thickness of the core
B= the width of the beam
d = is the distance between the centers of the two faces
e = the position of the neutral axis.

Assumption: weak core and strong CFRP skin and using classic Bernoulli hypothesis

Flexural Rigidity

The position of the neutral axis

MECHANICAL PROPERTIES AND TEST METHODS

1. Compressive strength test

Bare compressive test-without skin to core bonding

Stabilized compressive test- with skin to core bonding

CRUSH STRENGTH
When the spacecraft using such sandwich panels is hit by hyper velocity
meteoroids the time while the panel going plastic deformation before
getting crushed will be crucial for the astronauts to get out of the space
crafts.

2. Plate shear test method

The Shear strength and modulus values

dimension as 6" x 2" x 0.5" for non-metallic honeycomb fibers.

initiated by bonding the specimens to 1/2" thick steel loading plates.
loading rate is normally 0.020 inches per minute.

Shear deflections are to be measured with a displacement

transducer that senses the relative movement of the two plates.
Shear modulus is calculated from the slope of the initial
straight-line portion of the load-deflection curve.
Beam-flexure test can be used to test the core with higher
densities but our goal is used to design core with density
less than 3 pcf so we ignore this test.

SELECTION OF SKIN
We made the decision to use IM10 12K epoxy composite with continuous
unidirectional fiber
Epoxy IM10 12K composite had high strength-to-weight and high stiffnessto-weight properties and is stronger than steel, lighter than aluminum and
as stiff as titanium.

ORIENTATION OF FIBERS

Unidirectional prepreg tapes have been mostly used in the aerospace industry.
Fibers that have been oriented in 0/90 degree pattern to double the strength as
compared to unidirectional orientation.
use of only one layer of prepregs have higher chance of dimpling.

UNIDIRECTIONAL CFRP PREPREG TAPE

SKIN ORIENTATIONS MECHANICAL PROPERTIES

The table above shows the tensile and compressive properties of IM10 12k at different orientations.

REQUIREMENTS OF ADHESIVES
adhesives must function in adverse range of temperatures.
should resist the radiations and thus the micro cracking.
Insulation, high de-bonding energy.

Adhesive should pass the outgassing standard test

procedure according to ASTM E595.

ASTM TEST FOR OUTGASSING

SUMMARIZED RESULTS OF ASTM E595

If (Collected volatile condensable material)CVCM 0.10% and TML
(Total mass lost) 1.0%, the material passes.
If CVCM 0.10% and TML > 1.0%, the material can pass if TML WVR
1.0%.
If CVCM > 0.10%, the material fails.
If TML WVR (Water vapor regained) > 1.0%, the material fails.

TWO PART EPOXIES

offer excellent cohesion, resist chemicals, bonds very well with most
materials
operate over adverse range of temperature (4K) to 550F.
meet or exceed NASAs outgassing specification.
~40 g/m2 adhesive per skin considered to optimize the strength-to-weight
ratio in bending of sandwich structure.

ADHESIVE FILLETS

CALCULATIONS

Proposed Thickness of the core (tc)= 0.70

Proposed Weight of the core(Wc): Density*Volume
= 1.8 ft3*(0.7/12*10X11)= 11.55lb
For skin (IM 10, 12k)
Area covered by 2lb spool of IM 10=11*2800m=8420.8 ft2
Weight of 11X10 IM 10 for one face of the panel= 2*110/8420.8=0.026lbs
We propose to use 8 skins layer on each face of the core and 40g/m2 (0.008 lb/ ft2
adhesive per skin layer to get the optimal strength-to-weight ratio in bending of
sandwich structure.
Total weight of the two part epoxy used in the panel= 0.008*8 (gaps between
layers)*2(faces)*110(nominal area for the panel)=14.08 lbs
Total weight of the proposed honeycomb core sandwich panel= 0.026*16(total no.
of layers)+14.08+11.55=26.046lbs

CALCULATION CONTD

Density of the overall proposed sandwich panel= 26.046/9.167=2.84lb/ ft3

Overall density < 3lb/ ft3 (OK)
Flexural rigidity
From the table 2,
Diameter of the each tow (layer of skin)= Sqrt(0.18*4/3.14)=0.478mm=0.0188
Total thickness of skin on each side of the core (8 on each side)=
8*0.0188=0.1504
Total depth of the proposed panel: (0.1504)*2+ 0.70= 1.0004~1
From Eq. 1
Assuming Ec << Ef , we can ignore the second term of the equation,
DB= 11*12*45Msi*(0.1504in)36+45Msi*0.1504in*((0.1504+0.7)in)22
DB =326.4Mlb*in2 =326.4*4.44*106*1*6*10-4

DB =86.9540 KNm2

CONCLUSIONS