A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN RECYCLED CARBON FIBRE AND RANDOMLY ORIENTED GLASS FIBRE SANDWICH PANELS UNDER THREE-POINT AND IMPACT LOADING

The increased industrial use of fibre reinforced composites structures such as sandwich panels is a result of their lightweight, flexible, and high strength capabilities. Sandwich panels are generally assembled by placing a lightweight core in between two facesheets. The core provides the required thickness without increase in weight while the facesheets provide the required strength at less than half the cores thickness. Whilst the material choice for both vary, carbon and glass fibre reinforced polymers are predominantly the two main composite materials commonly utilised in the fabrication of sandwich panel facesheets. New developments in the application of fibre reinforced structures have raised an environmental and economic awareness for the necessity to recycle and repurpose fibre cut-off waste. The UK is the first major economy to pioneer a “green industrial revolution” by passing legislative laws, backed with funding, to bring industries such as the composite industry up to speed to achieve product sustainability and recyclability.

With focus in the composite industry shifting towards zero waste production cycles, it becomes a necessity to investigate the mechanical behaviour of fibre cut-off waste in structures such as sandwich panels. This thesis aims to contribute towards the issue by presenting an experimental comparison of sandwich panels fabricated using recycled carbon fibre (RCF) and chopped strand matt glass (CSMG). The experimental work undertaken are three-point bending and low-velocity impact. Across all industry that utilise sandwich panels, the two phenomena mentioned are observed to contribute significantly to panel degradation during its working life. For fair comparison, the sandwich panels for both fibres consist of the same areal density and same manufacturing methods.

Novelty in the thesis is granted through the comparative study between the mechanical behaviour of RCF and CSMG sandwich panels as this has not been investigated for industrial application. Obtained experimental data show that the RCF panels are stronger than the CSMG panels which could be an alternative to sandwich panels made with CSMG.