Abstract
This work investigates the mechanical behaviour of a sustainable sandwich panel, consisting of bamboo rings core, treated aluminium skins and epoxy adhesive. A Design of Experiment (DoE) is used to identify the effects of bamboo diameters (30 and 45 mm) and aluminium skin treatments (alkaline degreasing and application of primer) on the mechanical and physical properties of sandwich panels. The aluminium skins treated with the wash primer significantly increase adhesion to the polymer, resulting in greater maximum load, flexural strength, maximum skin stress and maximum core shear stress; while the skins treated with NaOH resulted in a greater flexural and core shear modulus. Relatively more rigid and resistant structures are obtained with Ø30 mm rings, due to the increased surface contact area and the number of constraints on the core. The samples fail due to the skin fracture, implying an efficient face-core bond that is attributed to the proper absorption of the polymer by bamboo and the treatment of the aluminium surface. The proposed panels present good mechanical performance, proving to be a feasible and promising alternative for secondary structural applications.
Highlights
Lightweight structures have been widely used in highperformance applications such as aerospace, automotive, civil engineering and many other fields in recent decades[1]
Only the diameter factor has a significant effect on the response, exhibiting a significant increase of 2% for sandwich panels with Ø30 mm bamboo rings, which is attributed to the lower percentage of voids as shown in Table 4, and greater density of this ring when compared to the Ø45 mm (Table 2)
Wash primer treated aluminium skins lead to a 10% increase in the maximum load of the sandwich panels compared to those treated with sodium hydroxide (Figure 6a)
Summary
Lightweight structures have been widely used in highperformance applications such as aerospace, automotive, civil engineering and many other fields in recent decades[1]. More research is needed to reduce the environmental impact of disposing of materials that use natural and biodegradable resources in high-end quality sustainable industrial products In this context, bamboo can be exploited for the design and development of composite materials due to its intrinsic characteristics, such as high renewability, biodegradability, versatility, rapid growth, low weight, low cost and, especially, for its physical and mechanical properties that already meet engineering requirements for use in civil construction[23,24,25,26]. The use of bamboo rings as a circular core in sandwich panels for structural applications has been investigated experimentally[33] and numerically[34]. Darzi et al.[34] conducted numerical studies on the flexural capacity of ultralight composite sandwich panels made of plywood faces and bamboo core. Failure analysis and a comparison study with another type of core are evaluated to investigate the feasibility of the proposed panel for secondary structural applications
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
