FE modelling of phenolic resin impregnated aramid paper adopted in foldcore sandwich cores

Abstract

The adaption and validation of an elastic-damage material model for aramid paper used in foldcore structures is presented. Aramid paper structures under compression fail in a complex buckling mode combined with face cracking at the buckle peaks. The constitutive modelling was adapted to shell elements in the explicit solver PAMCRASH with consideration of this particular compressive behaviour. The model was compared to test data of tensile tests, cylinder crushing tests and different loads on foldcore structures. The numerical results showed consistency with the experimental data in particular during foldcore collapse. However the material model slightly underestimated the foldcore residual strength in case of foldcore compaction.