Investigation of Thermal Conductivity of Wood Sandwich Panels with Aluminium and Polypropylene Core

Abstract

Sandwich panels are obtained by placing thick but rather light core material between two thin and rigid lower and upper surface layers. Sandwich panels, especially due to their light weight, high "strength / weight" ratio and durability compared to conventional materials have many use areas such as aviation and space industry, maritime, automotive and building industry. It is one of the biggest advantages that sandwich materials can be obtained from different materials and geometric structures by choosing the lower and upper surface layers and the core for various applications. The aim of this study is to investigate the thermal conductivity values of the sandwich panels, which are manufactured with different types of surface and core materials in sandwich panels. An aluminium and polypropylene as a core materials and alder, birch and scots pine wood veneers were used as wood species for surface panels for manufacturing of sandwich panels. A polyurethane modified epoxy- adhesive were used for binding of core layer to both surface layers. Thermal conductivity of sandwich panels was determined according to ASTM C 518 & ISO 8301. As a result of the study, the highest thermal conductivity values were obtained from aluminium core sandwich panels. The highest values were obtained from alder for the aluminium core panels and scots pine for the polypropylene core panels as wood species.