3D Printing of Composite Sandwich Structures for Aerospace Applications
Chetan Choudhari, Prafull S. Thakare, Santosh Kumar Sahu
Abstract
This chapter briefly explores the importance of 3D printing technology in fabrication of composite sandwich structure for aerospace applications. Recently 3D printing composite sandwich structure showed immense potential over traditional manufacturing process due to its freedom to design customization and print complex composite sandwich structure with minimum wastage of material. The investigation here enlightens the types of core, joining method, advantages and performance of 3D printing composite sandwich structure intended to aerospace industries is investigated in details. The performance of the 3D printed composite sandwich structure usually measured using compression, bending and impact test. It is also noted energy absorption characteristic is the crucial factor that measures the performance of the sandwich structure. The energy absorption depends on the topology of the unit cell and the material for fabrication. It is concluded that 3D printing is most flexible and sustainable technology for manufacturing composite sandwich structure in aerospace industries.