Nondestructive detection of the interfacial failure of steel-polymer sandwich composites during forming process

Steel-polymer composites have low density, high specific flexural stiffness and vibration damping properties over other metal materials. However, the weak interfaces between steel and polymer sheet are the typical locations where the failure occurs. Furthermore, interfacial failure is a fatal reason of the degradation of mechanical properties. Therefore, predicting interfacial failure of the final product is an important technology in commercialization of steel-polymer composites. In this study, we built forming limit diagram (FLD) based on two different failure modes: failure of the bottom skin steel and interfacial failure between the skin steel and core polymer. Acoustic emission (AE) technique was conducted to observe the interfacial failure moment. Peak frequency was found to be the key feature to distinguish interfacial failure. Peak frequency band that indicates interfacial failure was from 300 kHz to 500 kHz. This peak frequency band made it possible to build FLD considering the interfacial failure.