Studies on Flexural Properties and Construction of Failure Mode Map for Copper Sandwich Panels

This paper is focused on investigating the mechanisms associated with different failure modes of copper (C101) sandwich panels with honeycomb cores of different heights subjected to flexural loading. Honeycomb core is made up of copper strips which were formed to required shapes using Dies fabricated by Electric Discharge Wire cut machining technique. All the joints in the sandwich panel were established through Brazing technique. Three-point bending test was conducted as per ASTM standard C-393. It was observed that increase in height of the core resulted in panels with higher strength to weight ratio. It also exhibited higher stiffness to weight ratio and very high strain energy absorption ability. An increase in flexural strength was reported with a maximum of 43% improvement for 10.9 mm core compared to 6.9 mm core. Further, 81.75% increase in absorbed strain energy was reported for 10.9 mm thick panel compared to 6.9 mm. The Optical and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis confirmed the establishment of good bonding between the filler and the substrate. Energy-dispersive Spectroscopic (EDS) analysis revealed the presence of Cu, Al, Zn, SiO2 and CaCO3 in the substrate. Further it also revealed the presence of Cu, CaCO3 and GaP in the filler material. The failure mode map was constructed which can be used for predicting different types of failures more likely to occur for specific parameters of copper sandwich panel. The dominant failures occurred during testing was in good agreement with the prediction done through failure mode map. The appreciable results in the proposed research may be supportive in construction of cooling system. The structure development and process control are convenient in mass production in automobile industries.