Improvement in skin–core adhesion of multiwalled carbon nanotubes modified carbon fiber prepreg/Nomex honeycomb sandwich composites

An experimental investigation on the sandwich composites composed of the carbon fiber face sheets and Nomex honeycomb core has been carried out in this study. Multiwalled carbon nanotubes were added into the matrix of prepreg for converting the traditional pure resin adhesive fillet to composites. Resin viscosity was measured to evaluate the effect of the additive amount of multiwalled carbon nanotubes on the rheological properties. The size of adhesive fillet was obtained from the optical microscopy to assess the forming quality. Climbing drum peel test and edgewise compression test were employed for the mechanical assessment. The results showed that the addition of multiwalled carbon nanotubes reinforcement to epoxy resin in the prepreg was very effective in improving the skin–core adhesion. The peel load and peel energy release rate as well as the edgewise compressive strength and edgewise compressive modulus of the sandwich composites varied with different magnitudes due to the additive amount of multiwalled carbon nanotubes. Reinforcing mechanism of the adhesive fillet with multiwalled carbon nanotubes reinforcement was discussed on the basis of the fractographic observations by scanning electron microscopy.