Sandwich structures of aluminium skins and egg-box-shaped cores made with biobased foam and composites

Abstract

Sandwich panels composed of aluminium skins and egg-box-shaped cores made with natural fibre composites are tested in three-point bending and evaluated statistically and through failure analysis. The corrugated cores are assessed with filled bio-based foam. In order to produce these sandwich panels, preliminary investigations on natural fibre composites, and their use as egg-box-shaped structures are conducted. A full factorial design is performed to assess the effects of fibre reinforcement (sisal or coir) and polymer matrix types (epoxy or castor oil) on the physical-mechanical properties of flat composite laminates. These composites are also used to manufacture the egg-box shaped structures in different sizes, which are characterized under compression testing. A new analytical approach called RJS Method is used to determine the flexural and shear modulus of the proposed sandwich panels and estimate the shear contribution. The results reveal that flat laminated composites and their corresponding egg-box shaped cores, composed of sisal fibres and epoxy polymer, achieve higher absolute and specific mechanical properties. The corrugated core also leads to sandwich panels with higher mechanical properties, increasing the skin and core shear stresses by up to 60 and 76%, respectively, compared to the coir fibre castor-oil cores. The failure modes of the sandwich panels are limited to the core and are chronologically established through foam tearing, foam-egg-box shaped composite debonding, and final egg-box cell-wall flattening. The findings demonstrate that the sandwich panel based on egg-box shaped core made from natural resources is feasible for scaling up in different structural applications.