Experimental Analysis of Failure Behavior in Improved Honeycomb Sandwich Inserts by Replacing Potting Mass with a Carbon Fiber Layer

The pursuit of achieving the lightest possible structures without compromising safety and strength initially emerged in motorsports and has rapidly disseminated into the automotive industry. This advantageous trend has led many racing vehicles to adopt monocoque chassis constructed from carbon fiber sandwiches with honeycomb cores. A monocoque chassis embodies a singular structural unit wherein the body functions as a load-bearing element. This chassis supports the suspension, steering, drive, and other essential components and showcases exceptional strength. Despite these advantages, certain vehicle segments still require metals, as in some racing competitions like the DTM Racing Car in Germany. Considering this, because sandwich structures are weak under localized loads since the honeycomb compresses easily, reinforcement is introduced used on the connection zone of composite and metal material to spread the load to a larger area. This research will determine Tensile Pull-Out strength with an experimental method that refers to ECSS-E-HB-32-22A Space Engineering: Insert Design Handbook by the European Cooperation for Space Standardization (ECSS). This new reinforcement method will take the pull-out strength advantage of the insert method and the load spread benefit of the chamfer method. According to some studies, the potting mass will fill the space in sandwich structures, making the structure heavier. The new reinforcement method will remove the potting mass, replace it with carbon fiber layers, and add a metal insert. From this research, the new reinforcement method has an average Tensile Pull-Out strength of 8012.03 N, and the old reinforcement method has an average Tensile Pull-Out strength of 3620.35 N and 4897.54 N. From that result, the new reinforcement method has better Tensile Pull-Out strength than the old one.