Novel Methodology for Experimental Characterization of Micro-Sandwich Materials

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Mechanical Engineering
• Automotive Engineering

Background:

• Automotive industry faces pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (e.g., CO2) through lightweight components.
• Micro-sandwich materials offer formability and potential to replace steel in automotive bodies.
• Accurate simulation of manufacturing processes like cold forming requires reliable mechanical property data for these materials.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel method for characterizing the out-of-plane mechanical properties of micro-sandwich cores.
• To enable reliable material data acquisition for simulating manufacturing processes.
• To provide essential data for validating constitutive and numerical models.

Main Methods:

• Development of specialized test tools for micro-sandwich specimens.
• Application of digital image correlation (DIC) for displacement and fracture analysis.
• Statistical analysis of material test variations using Weibull distribution.

Main Results:

• A novel method for obtaining out-of-plane properties (transverse tension/compression, shear) of micro-sandwich cores was successfully developed.
• Digital image correlation provided qualitative insights into core displacement fields and fracture behavior.
• The proposed method demonstrated reliable and repeatable results, enhancing the understanding of micro-sandwich materials.

Conclusions:

• The novel characterization method yields reliable and repeatable data for micro-sandwich cores.
• This research provides crucial input for constitutive and numerical models used in automotive component manufacturing.
• The findings contribute to the broader adoption of micro-sandwich materials in the automotive sector for lightweighting.