Improving interfacial bonding and impact characteristics of Sandwich composites by interweaving carbon fiber

Abstract Sandwich composites consist of two external face sheets and an inner core, offering enhanced strength, stiffness, and weight efficiency. While widely used across industries like construction, marine, automotive, and aerospace, they do have drawbacks such as buckling, low damage resistance, and delamination. This study focused on fabricating two sandwich composite plates using the vacuum infusion method, with PVC foam as the core and glass fiber face sheets and epoxy resin as the binding agent. One plate had carbon fibers interwoven into the core to improve interfacial fracture toughness and low‐velocity impact resistance. Testing based on ASTM standards revealed significant enhancements with the addition of interwoven carbon fibers. The composite with carbon fibers exhibited a 98.26% increase in interfacial fracture toughness and a 22.368% increase in peak force during low‐velocity impact, indicating superior load‐bearing capacity. Moreover, it demonstrated a 2.08% improvement in total energy absorption and a 9.83% increase in total deformation compared to the standard composite material. These findings highlight the effectiveness of integrating carbon fibers into sandwich composites for enhanced performance under varied conditions. Highlights Two sandwich composite sheets were manufactured using vacuum infusion process One sheet consisted carbon fiber interwoven in the core material of the composite Interfacial fracture toughness test was conducted using modified three‐point bend test Low velocity impact test was performed for the two specimens The results of the two tests for both the specimens were compared and evaluated