MATEC Web of Conferences 74 , 00029 (2016) DOI: 10.

1051/ matecconf/20167400029
ICMER 2015

Sandwich Structure Based On Corrugated-Core: A Review

1,a 2 1
N. Z. M. Zaid , M.R.M. Rejab and N.A.N Mohamed
1
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang,
26600 Pekan, Pahang, Malaysia

Abstract. Sandwich structures are commonly based on polymeric foam and honeycomb core material, for use
in lightweight applications such as fuselage in aero plane, hull in marine construction and others. A review of
sandwich structure based on corrugated-core is proposed and presented in this paper. Firstly, this paper aims to
provide a means of comparing available sandwich structure in industries. Secondly, this paper aims to provide
sandwich structure with corrugated-core for future research development efforts in field of sandwich
construction. This paper starts with introduction of composite material such as sandwich structure, the
advantages of sandwich structure was shown. After that these papers provide the structure of sandwich
structure which includes the two faces and the cores. Furthermore, sandwich structure with different cores,
which is honeycomb, foam core and corrugated core are discussed. At the end, the paper discussed more on
corrugated-core for future research development.

1 Introduction an extra sheet, called internal sheet, inserted into the core,
a two-layer sandwich panel is then formed. Sandwich
Advanced composites materials such as sandwich structure comprise of two relatively thin, stiff and strong
structure have remained progressively substituting faces divided by a relatively thick lightweight core, for
traditional materials such as aluminum and steel in example, honeycomb core, foam core and cellular metal.
various industries fabricating all from small part to the Stiff and simultaneous light component is very important
key structural components of heavyweight vehicle such in nowadays industries. To achieve lightweight and high
as airplane and marine ship[1]. stiffness component, sandwich structure construction is
The advantages of sandwich structures include great develop [1-4].
stiffness to weight ratios [2-5] , improved fatigue life, Depending on the determination of the materials can
steadiness under compressive forces, good thermal and differ, nevertheless the most significant characteristics for
acoustic isolation properties. These benefits determine sandwich constructions are, they are lightweight
the fact that the use of composites has improved compared to metallic, high stiffness and cost effective
ominously in a wide range of structural applications and compared to other composite structures. For specific
first of all in aerospace manufacturing [6-9]. applications using core material for example in
Katzman et al. [10] said that sandwich structures are aerospace, automotive, marine transportation, satellites,
usually based on honeycomb core and polymeric foam truck structures, containers, tanks, body parts, rail cars
materials may keep air and humidity. Moisture retention and wind energy systems, the construction technology
is one of the problems in aircraft sandwich construction. used for the sandwich construction is significant [1, 5].
This problem may lead to growth in the whole weight of Sandwich structures are being considered for
the sandwich construction and degrading of the core application to airplane main structures, durability and
properties. To overcome problems, an open channel core damage tolerance is a first rank contemplation, thus,
material such as two-dimensional prismatic core is vent understanding the opposing effect of in-service events. In
able in order to avoid moisture accumulation. In addition, fact, development of composite structure to sensitive
the suitability of the corrugated-core as replacement core fields, where high reliability is required, such as domestic
design structures in the sandwich construction will be as flight, was so far restricted by the poor information of
well serves the concept of sustainable manufacturing. their behavior under intricate dynamic loads. Then, the
structure needs to be assessed in order to verify that
damage occurring during the service life will not lead to
2 Sandwich Structure failure or extreme structural deformation until the
Generally, single layer sandwich structure consists of damage is detected. The understanding of their static and
three main parts that are a core and two face sheets. With fatigue behavior are essential in order to use the material
in different application and a better considerate of the
a
Corresponding author: [email protected]

© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
MATEC Web of Conferences 74 , 00029 (2016) DOI: 10.1051/ matecconf/20167400029
ICMER 2015

various failure mechanisms under static and fatigue 2.2 Core

loadings situations is essential and extremely necessary
[5]. The sandwich structure core is the structure that placed
Because of their high specific strengths and stiffness, between two thin faces. The material of the core is
sandwich structures are extensively using in lightweight usually low strength material but its higher thickness
construction especially aerospace industries. Sandwich provides the sandwich composite with high bending
panel comprise of a lightweight core cover by two thin stiffness with overall low density. The purpose of the
face sheets. Every face sheet may be an isotropic core is to backing the thin skin so that it does not deform
material or a fiber-reinforced composite laminate while and stay fixed relative to each other.
the core material may either be of metallic/polymeric In recent years, there is several type of sandwich
foam or metallic/aramid honeycomb [11]. The main structures with better quasi-static and dynamic properties
profits of using the sandwich concept in structural have been introduced, comprising those based on various
components are the high stiffness and low weight ratio. foam, honeycomb cores, origami cores and truss cores
These structures can carry out-of-plane and in-plane [14].
loads and show good steadiness under compression,
possession excellent strength to weight and stiffness to 2.3 Honeycomb
weight characteristics. There are many benefits of
sandwich constructions, the expansion of new materials Aktay et al. [15] said that honeycomb is well-known core
and the essential for great performance and low-weight used to build sandwich structure. The name comes from
structures cover that sandwich structures will continue to the structure of honeycombs made by bees to store honey.
be in demand [1, 8]. Honeycombs and flex cores are used in many
Polymers, wood, aluminum and composites are used applications, for example chassis of modern cars use
for the core. These are to minimize weight that are used honeycomb sandwich structures. The honeycomb,
in form of foams, corrugated and honeycombs flexcores and nomex are sandwiched between two carbon
construction [12]. Sandwich structures with cellular core skins with the purpose of making a very stiff and strong
materials compromise great definite strength and an structure that offers shield to the driver in case of a
interest energy absorbing capacity. These sandwich simple crash.
structure properties make them a good answer for the In aerospace applications, honeycomb materials have
protection of aircraft structure from impacting unknown been broadly used among core materials. Various
objects. For instance, such panels are frequently used research have been conducted to know the mechanical
ahead of airplane to avoid unintended bird strikes, which response of honeycomb structures under dissimilar
can effect major damages to equipment and thus affect loadings [16].
their safety. This shield is to avoid damage of panels Normally honeycomb has a uniform shape of
which can cause the depressurization of aircraft [13]. hexagonal construction defined by the cell size, material,
cell wall thickness and bulk density like Figure 2 below.
The main materials for the core are glass fiber reinforced
2.1 Faces/Skin
plastic, aluminum and aramid paper. Between them,
The faces adhesively stuck to the core to gain a load aramid paper and aluminum are usually used in
transfer among the components. This method the engineering application.
properties of each detached component are utilized to the
structural advantages of the whole assembly leading to a
very high stiffness-to-weight and high bending strength-
to-weight ratios. Typically, the facing layer realized by
high pressure laminates, aluminum plates, and glass fiber
reinforced plastics. Basically, the skins are thin, stiff and
very strong. Figure 1 shows the example of skin part in
sandwich structures.

Face skin (blue)

Figure 2: Example of Honeycomb sandwich structure (Abbadi
et al. 2009)[17]

2.4 Foam Core

A big number of core materials and core configurations
have been proposed these days. The most often used core
Face skin (blue) materials are foams and honeycomb. The foam cores are
preferably used when the waterproof, sound and heat
Figure 1: The skin of sandwich structure (Konka et. al 2012) insulation qualities of cores are required. Moreover, the
[6] foam cores are the cheapest among core materials and
can offer some benefits in sandwich manufacture [18].

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MATEC Web of Conferences 74 , 00029 (2016) DOI: 10.1051/ matecconf/20167400029
ICMER 2015

The stuffing of honeycomb cells with foam can be relative densities. Foam materials are however bending
considered as the enhancement of debonding resistance controlled structures, and the material is thus not fully
and ability to produce new types of sandwich cores. This developed, which results in a lower weight specific
concept combines the benefits of honeycomb and foam performance compared to a stretching controlled structure
cores. The increased adhesive area of foam-filled [23].
honeycomb cells is only one of them. On the other hand,
the filling leads to changes of the dynamic properties of
2.5 Corrugated-core
the honeycomb sandwiches [18].
Adding foam in the honeycomb core causes adequate A corrugated-core sandwich structure is embraced of a
decrease of the magnitudes of the natural frequencies. corrugation sheet between two thin surface sheets. The
This effect is enlarged by the density of foam fillers, important feature of this structure is its high strength-to-
which trivially increases the stiffness and total mass of weight ratio. The corrugated-core keeps the face sheets
the filled sandwich plates. Filling with the foam promotes apart and stabilizes them by resisting vertical
the slight increases of buckling loads and the insignificant deformations, and also enables the whole structure to act
decreases of imperfection sensitivity of foam-filled as a single thick plate as an asset of its shearing strength.
sandwich plates. Instead, adding the foam can make This second feature gives better strength to the sandwich
changes in stress distributions in the core to sheet faces structures. Furthermore, unlike soft honeycomb shaped
interface [18]. cores, a corrugated-core opposes bending and twisting as
The sandwich constructions have become more well to vertical shear. Then, corrugated-core sandwich
widely used thanks to the use of cellular foams as a panels, due to their extremely high flexural stiffness-to-
structural element and load bearing component. Now day weight ratio are usually used in aeronautics, aerospace,
the main effort in design is put into face materials, but as civil engineering and other applications, where weight is
the demands for more improved structures are raised, the a significant design issue. This structure approach to form
research in the field of core materials is increased [19]. a sandwich plate may be defined as ‘structurally
The situation of aluminum alloy foam with cold- composite’, since its behavior characteristics are defined
worked aluminum face sheets have been studied by the composite action of its components [24].
experimentally and theoretically for plastic collapse Rejab et al. [14] showed that corrugated cores when
modes of sandwich beams. Plastic collapse is by three tested in the longitudinal direction offer shear strengths
contending mechanisms: face yield, indentation and core that are comparable with square honeycombs and
shear, with the active mechanism provisional upon the significantly greater than those exhibited by diamond
choice of geometry and material properties [20]. cores and more traditional foam cores. The second
Recently, Chen et al. [20] explained that a range of different feature of a corrugated-core is its ability to gives
metal foams have been established with a relative density outstanding ventilation characteristics, avoiding problems
ρ (defined by the ratio of foam density to the density of related with humidity retention that is common in cellular
the cell walls) in the range 0.05 to 0.3. Generally are core materials (e.g. polymeric foams and honeycombs).
based on aluminum alloys, though steel foams and creep- Humidity-retention can be a problem in many aerospace
resistant nickel alloy foams are also under progress. structures, e.g. aluminum honeycombs, but the adoption
Metal foams compete favorably with polymer foams as of corrugated, origami-type and truss core structures can
the lightweight cores of sandwich beams, plates and minimize this problem.
shells, due to the higher stiffness and high-temperature Corrugated-cores with metal sandwich panels are an
ability. interesting industrial solution as structural components
Crupi et al. [21] discussed the aluminum foam this is because their high stiffness-to-mass ratio.
sandwiches (AFS), gained by joining metal face sheets However, using detailed finite element models for
with a lightweight metal foam core, it have low specific numerical computation of their properties leads to large
weight, efficient capacity of energy dissipation, high models and long solution time, specifically for acoustic
impact strength, acoustic and thermal insulation, high simulations. Then, decrease of the complex shaped core
damping, etc., that made them interesting for a number of to an equivalent homogenous material is usually used
practical applications, such as the realization of [25].
lightweight structures with high mechanical strength and Amongst all sandwich panels, corrugated-core
good capacity of energy dissipation under impacts. When structures are an interesting alternative that is being
compared to traditional honeycomb panels, Aluminum progressively used in the transportation industry. For
Foam Sandwich offers several advantages. It can be these panels there are dissimilar core shapes, such as
prepared into curved shapes and with integral skins truss-type corrugations (i.e. triangular), circular shape or
(without adhesive bonding), allowing higher working trapezoidal cores [25].
temperature and higher resistance to damage from water Cote et al. [26] explain that prismatic, such as the Y-
intrusion, which could be important for marine core and NavTruss, are chosen in naval sandwich
applications. Aluminum foams have potential to change structure for two reasons (i) they are direct to
polymer foams in sandwich panel applications due to construction on large length scales by a welding route
their improved specific stiffness and higher temperature and (ii) the high longitudinal elongating and shear
ability [22]. strength of the cores makes them ideal for application in
Usually, the low density cores of the sandwich sandwich beams.
structure are made of polymeric foams of numerous

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MATEC Web of Conferences 74 , 00029 (2016) DOI: 10.1051/ matecconf/20167400029
ICMER 2015

Hou et al. [27] aims to investigate the effects of the

key shape and dimensional parameters on the crashing
behaviors of corrugated sandwich structures and improve
the sandwich cores with the trapezoidal and truss-type
corrugation configurations for crashworthiness standards.
It will also compare the improved crashworthiness of
these two different corrugated sandwich structures, thus Figure 4: Sinusoidal corrugated-cores (Bartolozzi et al.
given some guides to design of sandwich structures. 2014)[30]
Corrugated metal sandwich cores have verified excellent
shock resistant properties, generally due to their high
2.5.3 Trapezoidal
longitudinal stretching and shear strength [26].
The finite element modeling (FEM) and the impact
2.5.1 Triangular responses of stacked trapezoidal corrugated aluminum
core and aluminum sheet interlayer sandwich structures
For triangular shaped corrugated-core, several authors was studied by Kiliçaslan et al. [31]. Thill et al. [32]
already discussed the strength and properties. For investigated about trapezoidal corrugated aramid/epoxy
example, Buannic et al, [28] studies the homogenization laminates under huge tensile displacements transverse to
of corrugated sandwich panels. In this studies several the corrugation direction. Figure 5 shows trapezoidal
shapes of corrugated-cores were selected including corrugated-cores that have trapezium in shape with the
triangular shaped. Rejab et al, [14]conducted series of angle. Kiliçaslan et al. [33] do numerical studies and
experimental investigations and numerical analyses is experimental on the quasi-static and dynamic crushing
presented into the compression response, and subsequent responses of multilayer trapezoidal aluminum corrugated
failure modes in corrugated-core sandwich panels based sandwiches.
on an aluminum alloy, a glass fiber (GFRP) and a carbon
fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP). Tian et al. [29]
experimented compression panel comprised of different
type of corrugated-core including triangular. Figure 3
below shows the shape of triangular corrugated-cores
which is triangle shape.

Figure 5: Trapezoidal corrugated-cores (Bartolozzi et al. 2014)

[30]

3 Conclusions
Figure 3: Triangle corrugated-cores (Bartolozzi et al. 2014) [30]
Sandwich structures are commonly based on polymeric
2.5.2 Sinusoidal foam and honeycomb. Sandwich structure based on
corrugated-core with different shape of corrugated-core,
Bartolozzi et al. [25] investigated sinusoidal corrugated- which is trapezoidal, triangle and sinusoidal was
cores aluminum sandwich structures. The main field of discussed in this paper. The important features of this
application of these aluminum structures is the transport corrugated-core sandwich structures is its high strength to
area, e.g. in the automotive industry, where energy weight ratio. Recent researchers already make several
conservation, lightweight manufacture and recycling are experiments to investigate the strength of the corrugated-
critical requirements. Also marine internal applications core sandwich structures. Less of the research focus on
are common, since these panels provide good structural trapezoidal sandwich structure which offer high strength
performance with small thicknesses and can also be in compression test and shear test. Furthermore, due to
simply supplied in semi-finished components. The their high flexural stiffness to weight ratio, the structure
properties of the equivalent material are determined both usually used in making aircraft, marine ship, bridge and
analytically and numerically for the chosen Reissner– other application. From previous study, it showed that
Mindlin orthotropic representation. The two derived corrugated-core offer shear strengths when tested in the
models are compared in a comprehensive parametric longitudinal direction which can be compare with square
study to validate the computationally much cheaper honeycombs and significantly greater than diamond cores
analytical formulation. Furthermore, a validation of the and more traditional foam cores.
equivalent models is done based on the bending stiffness
per unit width of the sandwich panel. Finally, the acoustic
behavior of the structure is investigated comparing the Acknowledgements
reduced layered model with the fully detailed 3D model. The authors would like to be obliged to University
Figure 4 shows sinusoidal corrugated-cores that have Malaysia Pahang for providing laboratory facilities and
radius in the shape. financial assistance under project no. RDU140116.

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MATEC Web of Conferences 74 , 00029 (2016) DOI: 10.1051/ matecconf/20167400029
ICMER 2015

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