Mechanical behaviour of a syntactic foam/glass fibre composite sandwich

This note presents the main results of an experimental investigation into the mechanicalbehaviour of a composite sandwich conceived as a lightweight material for naval engineering applications.The sandwich structure is formed by a three-dimensional glass fibre/polymer matrix fabric with transversepiles interconnecting the skins; the core is filled with a polymer matrix/glass microspheres syntactic foam;additional Glass Fibre Reinforced Plastics extra-skins are laminated on the external facings of the filledfabric. The main features of the experimental tests on syntactic foam, skins and sandwich panels arepresented and discussed, with focus on both in-plane and out-of-plane responses. This work is part of abroader research investigation aimed at a complete characterisation, both experimental and numerical, ofthe complex mechanical behaviour of this composite sandwich.