The indentation responses of composite Y‐type cores sandwich structure under various temperatures

Abstract The influences of elevated and cryogenic temperature on the quasi‐static indentation responses and damage mechanism for composite Y‐type cores sandwich structure were studied by experiments in present paper. The quasi‐static indentation experiments were performed to explore the indentation performances for composite Y‐type cores sandwich structures under eight different temperature conditions. The influences of the testing environment temperature on the typical indentation force‐deformation curves, damage patterns and indentation failure load were investigated and analyzed. The experimental results demonstrated that the testing environment temperature made an important influence on the deformation mechanism, typical force‐deformation curves and failure load. Fiber fracture of the front panel was found when the testing environment temperature was below the glass transition temperature, while the fiber microbuckling of the front panel was also revealed when the testing environment temperature was above the glass transition temperature. The failure load increased with the decreasing of the testing environment temperature at cryogenic temperature. Nevertheless, at elevated temperature, the failure load decreased with the increasing of the testing environment temperature attributing to the weakening of the fiber‐matrix interface performances.