Light-Weight Design of CRH Wind Deflector Panels based on Woven Textile Sandwich Composites

The woven textile sandwich composite (WTSC) is a promising lightweight composite. In bending, two competing core shearing failure modes reduce the strength; deflection induced by the core shearing deformation reduces the flexural rigidity. To replace a solid composite laminate, the span of WTSC panel must be greater than a critical value, which was deduced on the condition that the load capacity and flexural rigidity of the WTSC panel are equal to those of the composite laminate. Three WTSC panels were tested in bending, so that the failure modes were observed, and the critical spans were determined. Using the alternative design method, the WTSC based wind deflector with reduced weight has been fabricated and mounted on the CRH (China Railway High-speed).