Sustainable Sandwich Panels Made of Aluminium Skins and Bamboo Rings

• Published in: Materials research (São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil) São Paulo, Brazil), 2021-01, Vol.24 (4), p.1
• Main Authors: Oliveira, Lívia Ávila de, Orth, Jacob Nicholas, Freire, Rodrigo Teixeira Santos, Panzera, Túlio Hallak, Christoforo, André Luis, Scarpa, Fabrizio
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alkaline cleaning; Aluminium surface treatment; Aluminum; Bamboo; Bamboo rings; Degreasing; Design of Experiment; Design of experiments; ENGINEERING, CHEMICAL; Flexural strength; MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY; Mechanical properties; METALLURGY & METALLURGICAL ENGINEERING; Physical properties; Polymers; Sandwich panels; Shear modulus; Shear stress
• ISSN: 1516-1439; 1980-5373; 1980-5373
• DOI: 10.1590/1980-5373-mr-2020-0543

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.