Fabrication and compression properties of continuous carbon fiber reinforced polyether ether ketone thermoplastic composite sandwich structures with lattice cores

Abstract

Lightweight and high-strength sandwich structures with advanced materials are essential for the sustainable development of future industrial development. This paper focuses on investigating the fabrication technology and compression properties of the three-dimensional sandwich structure with lattice cores fabricated by using the continuous carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic polyether ether ketone (CCF/PEEK). A novel fabrication technology for continuous carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic polyether ether ketone lattice core is proposed utilizing the unique characteristic of repeated thermoforming of continuous carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic polyether ether ketone. A mould was designed and then the continuous carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic polyether ether ketone lattice cores were fabricated. Typical adhesive technology is selected to connect facesheets and lattice cores. The out-of-plane compression behaviors of continuous carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic polyether ether ketone sandwich structures with lattice cores were investigated by experiment and simulation. Compared with the experimental results, the reliability and correctness of the simulation model were verified. By dint of the simulation model, the effect of stacking sequence of the lattice cores on the structural compression properties was investigated, and the correctness of lattice cores adopted $\pm 45°$ stacking sequence in this paper was proved. The continuous carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic polyether ether ketone lattice sandwich structures exhibit the competitive compression strength with other thermoplastic sandwich structures and surpasses some metal foams at a range of densities.