Advanced Composite Materials
Fireproof Lightweight Core Reinforced with Carbon Composites
Structural sandwich plates are a special form of laminated composite in which thin, strong, stiff, hard, but relatively heavy facings are combined with thick, relatively soft, light and weaker cores to provide a lightweight composite stronger and stiffer in most respects than the sum of the individual stiffness and strengths. In this investigation lightweight core with a density of about 700 kg/m3 were made using ceramic spheres and a recently developed inorganic matrix, called polysialate. These cores have a compressive strength of about 5 MPa. Thin slabs of these cores were externally reinforced with carbon fabric to obtain hybrid composite slabs and were tested under three point bending. The primary test variables were the amount of carbon reinforcement and the behavior after exposure to temperatures of 200°, 400°, 600° and 800°C. Both experimental results and analysis of slabs are presented.