Compressive and Flexural Behavior of Fiberglass/Polyurethane Sandwich Panels: Experimental and Numerical Study.

The mechanical properties of sandwich panels with a polyurethane core and fiberglass face layers produced by a continuous lamination process have been studied. Tensile, compression and shear tests were performed on isolated face layer materials. Using a nonlinear finite-element model, the mechanical behavior of the sandwich panels in flatwise compression, edgewise compression, and bending was simulated, and a good agreement with experiments was found to exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]