Fabrication and Flexural Performance Comparison of 3D Printed Lattice Core and Foam Core Sandwich Composites With Glass/Epoxy Face Sheets

Abstract In recent years, 3D printing or additive manufacturing technology has facilitated fabrication of different materials types for various purposes. One such use is the design and fabrication of new core constructions using different lattice types for sandwich composites. In this work, Autodesk Inventor was used to design lattice structures that were fabricated using Bambu lab P1P printer. Closed cell polymeric foams were also fabricated using a 2-part foam system. In addition, foam was also used to fill up empty space within the lattices. Vacuum assisted resin transfer molding was used to infuse epoxy resin in E-glass woven fabric layers, which were then laid on top and bottom of the core constructions. Entire setup was vacuum bagged till the facesheets were cured. Flexure test was conducted on all the sandwich composite samples. All the samples were compared with foam core sandwich composite samples. Lattice core sandwich composites exhibited an increase in flexural strength up to 10.4%, an increase in secant modulus up to 53.4% when compared with foam core sandwich samples. For the foam filled lattice cores there was an increase of up to 122% in flexural strength and 171.7% in secant modulus.