Bending and environmental characteristics of an eco-friendly sandwich panel with cork stopper cores

Abstract

The design and application of sustainable structures are promising approaches to achieve energy conservation and emission reduction in construction and buildings. Cork stoppers have high recycling value and can be particularly used as the core of eco-friendly sandwich structures. The object of this paper is to assess the eco-mechanical performance of a more sustainable sandwich structure made of eco-friendly cores (natural or agglomerated cork stopper), aluminum alloy skins and resin adhesive. A set of sandwich panels with different packing arrangements are fabricated. Experimental tests are conducted to address the effects of packing topology and cork stoppers’ materials on bending characteristics and failure modes. The life cycle assessment method is adopted to quantify the environmental impacts, and the eco-mechanical performances are further evaluated. The results show that this sandwich structure concept with cork stopper cores has good structural and resource-environment efficiency and could be a promising alternative in construction and buildings.