Luffa Sponge as a Sustainable Engineering Material

Abstract

The paper presents the first scientific study of the stiffness, strength and energy absorption characteristics of the luffa sponge with a view to using it as an alternative sustainable engineering material for various practical applications. A series of compression tests on luffa sponge columns have been carried out. The stress-strain curves show a near constant plateau stress over a long strain range, which is ideal for energy absorption applications. It is found that the luffa sponge material exhibits remarkable stiffness, strength and energy absorption capacity that are comparable to those of some commonly-used metallic cellular materials. These properties are due to its light-weight base material, and its structural hierarchy at several length scales. Empirical formulae have been developed for stiffness, strength, densification strain and specific energy absorption at the macroscopic level by considering the luffa fiber as the base material. A comparative study shows that the luffa sponge material outperforms a variety of traditional engineering materials.