Mechanical and thermal properties of PVC and polyurethane foam hybrid composites

Abstract Sandwich foam composites are mostly used today in structural applications in aerospace and automobile industries due to light weight and high stiffness of the sandwich composites. In this research work, the composites were fabricated by using polyurethane and PVC foam and carbon fiber as skin. Sandwich composites were fabricated by the hand lay-up method. Mechanical tests such as tensile, flexural, impact, double shear, inter delamination and hardness tests were conducted. A thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) test was also performed for the analysis of the temperature characteristics of the sandwich composites. The internal structures of tested samples were analyzed through a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results show that the tensile, flexural, impact, thermal and inter delamination strengths of PVC foam composites are superior to those of other composites.