Title: Effects of bio-composites in sandwich panels with an optimum corrugated cores under edgewise compression loading

Authors: Jalen C. Mano; Eltahry Elghandour

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, California Polytechnic State University, 1 Grand Ave., San Luis Obispo, CA 93407, USA ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, California Polytechnic State University, 1 Grand Ave., San Luis Obispo, CA 93407, USA

Abstract: This paper presents the optimum design, manufacturing, and testing of corrugated sandwich panel structures under edgewise compression loading. A bio-composite was integrated in both the core and the skin in corrugated sandwich panels. The cases tested were all-carbon fibre, hemp skin with carbon fibre core, carbon fibre skin with hemp core and all-hemp. Compression loading tests were conducted on varying lengths of single-ligament panels utilising trapezoidal corrugation as the core and a flat plate as the skin. The ultimate load and stiffness were investigated for each sample, as well as the failure modes seen. It is shown that, first, hemp fibres are viable as a substitute for certain sections of the traditional composite structure, and second, integrating hemp fibres can solve the problems of debonding seen in the all-carbon fibre samples seen in previous research.

Keywords: bio-composites; corrugated structures; sandwich panels; edgewise compression testing; composites manufacturing; carbon fibre; hemp.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMSS.2020.106412

International Journal of Sustainable Materials and Structural Systems, 2020 Vol.4 No.1, pp.1 - 24

Received: 07 May 2019
Accepted: 26 Jun 2019
Published online: 06 Apr 2020 *

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