Core materials general questions

Talk Composites - The Forum for Advanced Composites

Back

Core materials general questions

Author	Message
Chrima-motorsport	Chrima-motorsport posted 12 Years Ago HOT Topic Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 2, Visits: 10	Hey! I have some questions about core materials. We don't have a lot of experience of carbon yet. We will attend the easy composites course, but i am so unbelievably curious to this so I cant wait. We have made some simpel instrument panels. Just simpel flat once. So there is alot of things here that is new to us. The thing I wounder the most at the time is, why do you use core materials? Does it improves strength? I have been working alot with mechanics on formula cars with a honeycomb monocoque. I didn't think so much over the carbon construction of it at that time. It just struck me the last year. In a monocoque its pretty obvious that you use honeycomb to absorb the kinetic energy produced during an impact. But say that i'm making a front bumper for my race car wich is a normal roadcar body so it got the crash zones in the body. do I need to use any core material in the front bumper. Or why is core so important? I'll like to thank you for any replys to my simple questions =)
	Reply Like 2
wozza	wozza posted 12 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 688, Visits: 5.4K	Hi and welcome. Core materials add strength whilst reducing weight. All the core material is really doing is separating the outer layers of the sandwich. By doing this the fibres of the outer layers have to stretch further for a given deflection. So in basic terms the thicker the core material the stiffer/stronger the part will be. This also saves weight and cost's. A 10mm thick solid carbon panel would be heavy and cost a fortune. A 2 layers of carbon- 10mm Closed Cell Foam- 2 layers of carbon sandwich is light and very strong. For example you could take a panel, say 600mm x 400mm put it on top of two house bricks and stand on it. Hope that helps Warren Carbon Copies Ltd Edited 12 Years Ago by wozza
	Reply Like 2