CICE 2010 - The 5th International Conference on FRP Composites in Civil Engineering September 27-29, 2010, Beijing, China

Shear Wrinkling of GFRP Webs in Cell-Core Sandwiches

Behzad D. Manshadi, Anastasios P. Vassilopoulos, Julia de Castro & Thomas Keller (thomas.keller@epfl.ch) Composite Construction Laboratory (CCLab), Ecole Polytechnique F d rale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland

ABSTRACT Glass fiber-reinforced (GFRP) cell-core sandwich structures are increasingly used in bridge deck and roof construction. GFRP cell-core sandwiches are composed of the outer GFRP face sheets, a foam core and a grid of GFRP webs integrated into the core in order to reinforce the shear load capacity. One of the critical failure modes is shear wrinkling, a local buckling failure in the sandwich webs due to shear loading. Shear wrinkling is a biaxial compression-tension wrinkling problem and, for this reason, the numerous results of pure compressive wrinkling research are not necessarily applicable. The details and results of in-plane biaxial compression-tension wrinkling experiments on GFRP sandwich laminates, stabilized by a polyurethane foam core, are presented. It is shown that an increasing transverse tension load significantly decreases the wrinkling load. These results are confirmed by finite element calculations. KEY WORDS

1 INTRODUCTION
Foam-core based sandwich structures, reinforced by an internal grid of webs, and denominated cell-core sandwiches, are increasingly used in applications requiring high bending stiffness and strength combined with low weight such as aerospace and marine structures. Nowadays, the advantageous use of glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) materials in sandwich construction is also being explored in civil applications, e.g. building construction. Keller et al. 2008 showed that FRP composites assembled in large-scale cell-core sandwich structures enable the prefabrication of lightweight, single-layer and functionintegrated roof structures for rapid on-site installation, as shown in Figure 1. In this particular building, structural functions, building physics functions (thermal insulation, water proofing), and architectural functions (complex shapes) were integrated into single components by using GFRP sandwich construction.

the cell-core sandwich due to shear loading, as shown in Figure 2. In contrast to uniaxial compression wrinkling, for which several theoretical models and a large amount of research work and available experimental data exists (Plantema 1966, Allen 1969, Ley et al. 1999), only a small amount of information on shear wrinkling is available. Shear wrinkling is a biaxial compression-tension wrinkling problem and, therefore, the results of compressive wrinkling research are not directly applicable. Only a few models exist for the analysis of face wrinkling of sandwich laminates under biaxial loading (Fagerberg & Zenkert 2005, Birman & Bert 2004, Hadi & Matthews 2000, Sullins et al. 1969, Vonach & Rammerstorfer 2000), which, however, concern biaxial compressioncompression and not compression-tension loading. Only

Figure 1 Novartis Campus Main Gate Building with GFRP cellcore sandwich roof (Keller et al. 2008)

As the design of this GFRP sandwich roof structure demonstrated, one of the critical failure modes is shear wrinkling, a local buckling failure in the GFRP webs of

Figure 2 Shear wrinkling failure of web and subsequent failure of upper face sheet of GFRP sandwich beam subjected to four-point bending (Keller et al. 2008)

L. Ye et al. (eds.), Advances in FRP Composites in Civil Engineering Tsinghua University Press, Beijing and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011

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one experimental study on shear wrinkling of composite sandwiches (Lake et al. 2007) was found. In this study, however, no comprehensive model was presented. This paper presents the details and results of in-plane biaxial compression-tension wrinkling experiments on GFRP sandwich panels stabilized by a thick polyurethane (PU) foam core. The influence of an increasing tension load on the wrinkling load is investigated.

these dimensions simulated the wrinkling of sandwich panels with infinite foam core thickness. According to Ley et al. 1999, a core is assumed infinite when tf tc Ef Ec
1/ 3

0.2

(1)

EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP

where Ec and Ef are the elastic modulus of foam and face sheets (given in Table 1); and tc and tf are the thicknesses of foam core and face sheet, respectively.
Table 1 Mechanical properties of foam core and UD glasspolyester laminates used for face sheet Properties Longitudinal Elastic Modulus (MPa) Transverse Elastic Modulus (MPa) Shear Modulus (MPa) Core (PU-60) 17.5 17.5 6.5 Face sheet (GFRP) 17100 6040 2000

An Instron planar biaxial cruciform testing system with 4 advanced 63 kN servo-hydraulic actuators, mounted in-plane and perpendicular to each-other, was used, see Figure 3. Compression and tension loads were applied horizontally and vertically, respectively.

Figure 3 Instron planar biaxial cruciform testing system Figure 4 Specimen geometry in [mm]

Sandwich panels of 400400 mm2 with one thin face sheet stabilized by thick PU foam were prepared by handlay-up. The face sheet of 1.2 mm thickness consisted of two unidirectional E-glass fiber layers (470 g/m2 each) arranged in [90/0] stacking sequence and polyester. The core of 60 mm thickness consisted of polyurethane foam of 60 kg/m3 density (PU-60). The main mechanical properties of foam core and UD glass-polyester laminates used for face sheet are summarized in Table 1. The specimens were cut from the sandwich panels with an aspect ratio of 1, as shown in Figure 4. To prevent interfering of grip motions during loading and to smoothen load introduction the corners were truncated. The foam from the edges which were clamped in the steel grips was removed. A supporting frame, consisting of a GFRP laminate, was bonded on each specimen to avoid any grip failure and to impose the wrinkling failure to occur in the part subjected to the transverse tension load, see Figure 5. In addition, an aluminum plate was placed behind the foam to prevent the out-of-displacement of the specimen. This set-up with

Figure 5 Biaxial compression-tension test set-up

The tension load was first applied in vertical direction at a loading rate of 0.25 kN/s and then kept constant throughout the test. Compression was then applied in displacement control at a rate of 0.017 mm/s up to

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specimen failure. Tension loads were selected in different steps from 0 to 20 kN. One specimen was tested at each load level, except at 0 kN tension load for which two specimens were used.

FINITE ELEMENT MODELING

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

Two typical wrinkling failure modes were observed, as shown in Figure 6. Either the face sheets wrinkling wave went inside the foam (case (a)) or the wrinkling wave came out of foam (case (b)). Table 2 presents the wrinkling loads recorded at the different tension loads. The average wrinkling load (ultimate compressive load) in the case without any tension load was 20.5 kN while this value decreased in the case of 20 kN tension load to 14.9 kN, which corresponds to a decrease of 27%.

Linear elastic finite element (FE) analysis on wrinkling stability has been performed by using ANSYS software. The specimens were modeled using 8-node layered shell elements (Shell-91) for the face sheets and 20-node structural solid elements (Solid-95) for the foam. Figure 7 shows the mesh; 5432 elements were used in total. The material properties given in Table 1 were applied.

Figure 7 Finite element model of specimen

(a)

(b)

Figure 6 Wrinkling failure modes, (a) wrinkling wave went inside foam, (b) wrinkling wave came out of foam Table 2 Experimental wrinkling loads at different tension loads Tension load (kN) 0 0 3 5 10 11.2 17.7 20 Wrinkling load (kN) 21.0 19.9 19.0 17.1 15.8 15.9 15.3 14.9

Figure 8 First mode of eigen-value buckling solution

The wrinkling load was calculated as a local buckling load by performing the eigen-value buckling solution. A plot of the first buckling mode shape is shown in Figure 8. The buckling mode consists of several parallel local waves. In reality, one of these local waves grows fast up to ultimate failure, as it was observed in the experiments. The other waves could not be detected.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

The resulting wrinkling loads as a function of the transverse tension loads are shown in Figure 9. Fitting

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curves were added to the experimental results. The wrinkling loads show a pronounced decreasing trend at lower tension loads which slows down for higher tension loads and approaches a plateau. A decrease of almost 27% was observed by applying 20 kN tension load. The FE results, also shown in Figure 9, confirm the negative effect of the increasing transverse tension load on the wrinkling loads. However, they overestimate the experimental results and do not clearly show the plateau.
30 25 20 15 10 5 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Tension load (kN) Exp. FEM Fitting pure shear wrinkling

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to thank the Swiss Innovation Promotion Agency CTI for its financial support (Grant No. 9121.1 PFIW-IW), Scobalit Composites, Winterthur, Switzerland for fabricating the sandwich plates, and the EPFL LMAF Laboratory for use of the biaxial test machine.

REFERENCES
Allen, H.G. 1969. Analysis and Design of Structural Sandwich Panels. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Birman, V. & Bert, C.W. 2004. Wrinkling of Composite-facing Sandwich Panels under Biaxial Loading. Journal of Sandwich Structures and Materials 6:217-237. Fagerberg, L. and Zenkert, D. 2005. Effects of Anisotropy and Multi-Axial Loading on the Wrinkling of Sandwich Panels. Journal of Sandwich Structures and Materials 7:177-194. Hadi, B.K. & Matthews, F.L. 2000. Development of BensonMayers Theory on the Wrinkling of Anisotropic Sandwich Panels. Composite Structures 49:425-434. Keller, T., Haas, Ch. & Valle, T. 2008. Structural Concept, Design and Experimental Verification of a GFRP Sandwich Roof Structure. Journal of Composites for Construction 12(4):454-468. Lake, S., Saunders, M. & Anderson, J. 2007. Shear Wrinkling of Composite Sandwich Stiffener Webs. SAMPE-2007, Baltimore, MD. Ley, R.P., Lin, W. & Mbanefo, U. 1999. Facesheet Wrinkling in Sandwich Structures. NASA: Langley Research Center. Plantema, F.J. 1966. Sandwich Construction. New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc. Sullins, R.T. Smith, G.W. & Spier, E.E. 1969. Manual for Structural Stability Analysis of Sandwich Plates and Shells. 1969, NASAContractor Report No. 1467. Vonach, W.K. & Rammerstorfer, F.G. 2000. Wrinkling of Thick Orthotropic Sandwich Plates under General Loading Conditions. Archive of Applied Mechanics 70:338-348.

Figure 9 Comparison experimental and numerical wrinkling loads at different transverse tension loads

The pure shear wrinkling load, determined as the intersection point of the pure shear wrinkling line (corresponding to equal tension and compression loading) with the fitting curve was 15.3 kN. The study is still in progress. Further investigations with different foam core densities and fiber architectures of face sheet will be performed and an analytical model will be developed to predict the wrinkling load as a function of the transverse tension load.

Wrinkling load (kN)