THREE-POINT BENDING TESTING OF SANDWICH BEAMS AND FINITE ELEMENT COMPARISON

The results of 3-point bending tests applied on 4 different types of composite beam structure and their comparison with Finite Element Modeling (FEM) are presented. Three different layups have been applied on rectangular and hexagonal foam cross sections. Experiments are realized and compared with FEM results in order to create a more confident design of an adaptive wind turbine blade that will be built using a foam core and a fiber glass/epoxy skin. Even if torsion loads and centrifugal loads are present on wind turbine blade during operation, the major loads are due to bending moments, so emphasis is put on 3-point bending tests of sandwich like composite beams. Tests and FEM show that the sandwich beam behavior is closely related to the skin and foam thicknesses.