This 22nd Laminate Sample is a bit of an odd mix - maybe not that practical but worth a look for educational purposes. I wanted to show some Kevlar and discuss how it handles and what it is good for... but I also wanted to do a one-shot honeycomb cored panel with wet epoxy instead of prepreg.
You'd probably want to mix your Kevlar (aramid) fiber with some e-glass or carbon to get the best useful performance, but this shows the process and gives an idea of what you can expect. Most notably, the thicker Proset 135 resin doesn't run too badly into the honeycomb cells and the 1/8" / 3mm cell honeycomb doesn't leave dimples in the bag-side surface. Carbon on aluminum honeycomb can have corrosion issues and sometimes a glass scrim is used to isolate the materials - here a scrim might help the not-so-sticky Kevlar adhere better to the epoxy.
Kevlar is very strong in tensile loading and not remarkable in compression - here it just buckles but doesn't break even when the epoxy cracks away from the fibers. Try that with carbon - which will just explode! Kevlar is tough stuff though and if you have things that need to stay together when damaged or resist abrasion - it is totally worth looking into!
More practical composites knowledge (and someday a page with more about this sample) at: explorecomposites.com
30 сен 2024