Description of the behavior of honeycomb vs foam sandwich cores and the elaboration on hybrid solutions

Sandwich constructions for aerospace applications are commonly utilized for their high stiffness to weight ratio. These sandwiches are made up of a variety of core materials depending on the desired final material properties. The main two core materials in question, Nomex® Honeycomb or Rohacell® foam both require unique manufacturing steps in order to achieve the required physical and mechanical properties of the final construction. To bridge the gap between the properties and behaviors of the two core materials, a novel double-core hybrid is proposed, experimented with, and tested. This works goes through the necessary construction and testing methods, the brainstorming pathway, characterization, and comparison of the hybrid sandwich versus its reference sandwich. Results are compared and their significance is noted.