A New Approach to Manufacturing Biocomposite Sandwich Structures: Mycelium-Based Cores

Author(s):  
Lai Jiang ◽  
Daniel Walczyk ◽  
Gavin McIntyre ◽  
Ronald Bucinell

A new approach to manufacturing biocomposite sandwich structures is introduced. Materials used in the biocomposite are natural textile reinforcement, mycelium-bound agricultural waste as core, and bioresin. This paper focuses on three specific steps of the seven-step manufacturing process: filling pre-stamped textile shells with core mixture; allowing the core material to grow thereby binding reinforcement particles and textile skins into a unitized preform; and oven drying said preform to drive off moisture and inactivate the mycelium. Specific process details highlighted include design and thermoforming of growth trays, tray sterilization, filling trays with mycelium-inoculated substrates filling and allowing growth to occur, and finally conduction and convection drying/inactivation of the grown parts. To study the new material’s stiffness using different materials and under different processing conditions, specimen dimensions were based on ASTM D7250 and C393 standards. All dried samples were tested in flexure by three-point bending method to determine the stiffness and strength of the resin-less preforms and to identify optimal material combinations.

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 865-894 ◽  
Author(s):  
AR Nazari ◽  
H Hosseini-Toudeshky ◽  
MZ Kabir

In this paper, the load-carrying capacity and failure mechanisms of sandwich beams and panels with elastomeric foam core and composite laminate face sheets are investigated. For this purpose, the flexural behavior of laminated composite beams and panels (applied as face sheets) is firstly investigated under three-point bending and central concentrated loads, respectively. Then, the same examination is conducted for the sandwich beams and panels, in which the proposed elastomeric foam is utilized as the core material. It is shown that the failure mechanisms which are associated to the core in the sandwich structures with crushable foams are not considered in the examined sandwich structures. The collapse of the sandwich specimens, examined here, is observed due to the failure of the skins in some steps. By multi-step collapse of these specimens via separately failure of the top and bottom skins, a considerable amount of energy is absorbed between these steps. Due to non-brittle behavior of the core material under loading, a large compression resistance is observed after failure of the top skin which led to the recovery of the load-carrying capacity in the sandwich beams. A similar behavior for the sandwich panels led to the increase of the ultimate strength after appearance of the failure lines on the top skin. The general outcomes of this investigation promise a good influence for the application of elastomeric foam as core material for sandwich structures.


Author(s):  
Cihan Kaboglu

Sandwich structures are popular in applications in which the weight of the component affects the efficiency, especially in the aviation and aerospace industries. This study aims to understand the impact behaviour of sandwich structures with different core materials. Sandwich structures are manufactured with glass fibre reinforced polymer skins and balsa wood, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) core through resin infusion under flexible tools. Three different core materials were tested and compared using the damaged area of the back face of the sample. The effect of the core materials on the mechanical behaviour of the structures is crucial. The results showed that the microstructure of the core materials plays an important role, because althoughthe density of balsa wood is greater than the density of PET and PVC, the structures having PVC and PET as core materials undergo less damage than those having balsa wood as a core material. Keywords: Sandwich composite, impact behaviour, core materials.


2011 ◽  
Vol 492 ◽  
pp. 24-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rong Jian Lu ◽  
Ting Ting Ma ◽  
Yuan Fu Yi ◽  
Long Quan Shao ◽  
Jie Mo Tian ◽  
...  

Bilayered three-point bending strength specimen of KAVO zirconia-Vita VM9 veneering porcelain were made according to ISO6872 standard, the core to porcelain thickness ratio was 1:1. Specimens were subjected to multiple dentine porcelain firing cycles. Three-point bending strength were tested, SEM was used to observe the characteristics of the failure mode. Results show that there was no influence on the bending strength by multiple firing, the three-point bending strength were 996 ~ 1020 MPa after multiple firing, and no obvious defects was found at the interfaces. In all bilayered specimen, the bulk fracture initiated at the tensile surface of the core material and was consistently accompanied with porcelain crush and delamination at the interface.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Nuño ◽  
Jannik Bühring ◽  
Narasimha Rao Mekala ◽  
Kai-Uwe Schröder

Abstract Sandwich structures possess a high bending stiffness compared to monolithic structures with a similar weight. This makes them very suitable for lightweight applications where high stiffness to weight ratios are needed. Most common manufacturing methods of sandwich structures involve adhesive bonding of the core material with the sheets. However, adhesive bonding is prone to delamination, a failure mode which is often difficult to detect. In this paper, the results of delamination testing of fully additive manufactured (AM) AlSi10Mg sandwich structures with pyramidal lattice truss core are presented. To characterise the bonding strength, climbing drum peel tests and out-of-plane tensile tests are done. The thickness of the faces and the diameter of the struts is 0.5 mm, while the core is 2 mm thick. The inclination of the struts is 45°. To predict the expected failure loads and modes, analytical formulas are derived. The analytics and tests are supported by finite element (FE) calculations. From the analytic approaches, design guidelines to avoid delamination in AM sandwich structures can be followed. The study shows, that critical ratios for face sheet thickness to strut diameter can be determined, to define if the structure tends to delaminate under certain loads. Those ratios are mainly influenced by the strut inclination. The peel tests resulted in face yielding, which can also be followed from the analytics and numerics. The out-of-plane tensile tests didn't damage the structure.


Proceedings ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Mezeix ◽  
Wongtimnoi

Sandwich structures are widely used in aeronautics both for primary and secondary structures such as landing gear doors, flaps or floors. Multi-cores materials sandwich structures presents many advantages. By adding layers with another materials that the core one, extra properties can be obtained as heat or impact protection. Manufacturing quality must be controlled and therefore bonding needs to be inspected. In this paper bonding defects between multi-layers of sandwich specimen are inspected through Non Destructive Tests. Due to its large use in industry, ultrasonic phase array is used to detect manufacturing bonding defects. Three different type of multi-cores materials specimen are investigated. Results show that due to the high PVC foam porosity, defects cannot be detected both between composite skins and foam and between foam and core material.


2014 ◽  
Vol 695 ◽  
pp. 694-698 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohd Ruzaimi Mat Rejab ◽  
W.A.W. Hassan ◽  
Januar Parlaungan Siregar ◽  
Dandi Bachtiar

Hexagonal honeycomb cores have found extensive applications particularly in the aerospace and naval industries. In view of the recent interest in novel strong and lightweight core architectures, square honeycomb cores were manufactured and tested under uniform lateral compression. A slotting technique has been used to manufacture the square honeycomb cores based on three different materials; glass fibre-reinforced plastic (GFRP), carbon fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP) and self-reinforced polypropylene (SRPP). As semi-rigid polyvinyl chloride (PVC) foam was placed in each of unit cells to further stiffen the core structure. The core then was bonded to two skins to form a sandwich structure. The compressive responses of the sandwich structures were measured as a function of relative density. In this paper, particular focus is placed on examining the compression strength and energy absorption characteristics of the square honeycombs with and without the additional foam core. Comparisons in terms of specific strength and specific energy absorption have shown that the CFRP core offers excellent properties. The presence of the foam core significantly increases the energy absorption capability of overall structure and the SRPP core could potentially be used as an alternative lightweight core material in recyclable sandwich structures.


2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 439-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Labeas ◽  
Evangelos Ptochos

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present, the global behaviour of sandwich structures comprising cellular cores is predicted by finite element (FE) analysis. Two modelling approaches are investigated, providing different levels of accuracy; in both approaches, the sandwich structure is idealised as a layered stack with the skin modelled using shell elements; while the core is either modelled with fine detail using beam micro-elements representing the cell struts, or is modelled by three-dimensional solid elements after an appropriate core homogenisation. Design/methodology/approach – The applied homogenisation methodology, as well as the all important modelling issues are presented in detail. Experimental tests performed using a mass-drop testing machine are used for the successful validation of the simulation models. Findings – It was concluded that the core microscale models having detailed FE modelling of the core unit cells geometry with fine scale beam elements are suitable for the analysis of the core failure modes and the prediction of the basic core stiffness and strength properties. It was demonstrated that the homogenised core model provides significant advantages with respect to computing time and cost, although they require additional calculations in order to define the homogenised stress-strain curves. Research limitations/implications – Special microscale material tests are required for the determination of appropriate materials parameters of the core models, as steel selective laser melting (SLM) microstrut properties differ from the constitutive steel material ones, due to the core manufacturing SLM technique. Stress interactions were not taken into account in the homogenisation, as the applied core material model supports the introduction of independent stress-strain curves; however, the predicted load deflection results appeared to be very close to those obtained from the detailed core micromodels. Originality/value – The paper is original. The dynamic behaviour of conventional sandwich structures comprising conventional honeycomb type cores has been extensively studied, using simple mass-spring models, energy based models, as well as FE models. However, the response of sandwich panels with innovative SLM cellular cores has been limited. In the present paper, novel modelling approaches for the simulation of the structural response of sandwich panels having innovative open lattice cellular cores produced by SLM are investigated.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 637
Author(s):  
Tomas Astrauskas ◽  
Tomas Januševičius ◽  
Raimondas Grubliauskas

Studies on recycled materials emerged during recent years. This paper investigates samples’ sound absorption properties for panels fabricated of a mixture of paper sludge (PS) and clay mixture. PS was the core material. The sound absorption was measured. We also consider the influence of an air gap between panels and rigid backing. Different air gaps (50, 100, 150, 200 mm) simulate existing acoustic panel systems. Finally, the PS and clay composite panel sound absorption coefficients are compared to those for a typical commercial absorptive ceiling panel. The average sound absorption coefficient of PS-clay composite panels (αavg. in the frequency range from 250 to 1600 Hz) was up to 0.55. The resulting average sound absorption coefficient of panels made of recycled (but unfinished) materials is even somewhat higher than for the finished commercial (finished) acoustic panel (αavg. = 0.51).


2021 ◽  
pp. 109963622110338
Author(s):  
Yury Solyaev ◽  
Arseniy Babaytsev ◽  
Anastasia Ustenko ◽  
Andrey Ripetskiy ◽  
Alexander Volkov

Mechanical performance of 3d-printed polyamide sandwich beams with different type of the lattice cores is investigated. Four variants of the beams are considered, which differ in the type of connections between the elements in the lattice structure of the core. We consider the pantographic-type lattices formed by the two families of inclined beams placed with small offset and connected by stiff joints (variant 1), by hinges (variant 2) and made without joints (variant 3). The fourth type of the core has the standard plane geometry formed by the intersected beams lying in the same plane (variant 4). Experimental tests were performed for the localized indentation loading according to the three-point bending scheme with small span-to-thickness ratio. From the experiments we found that the plane geometry of variant 4 has the highest rigidity and the highest load bearing capacity in the static tests. However, other three variants of the pantographic-type cores (1–3) demonstrate the better performance under the impact loading. The impact strength of such structures are in 3.5–5 times higher than those one of variant 4 with almost the same mass per unit length. This result is validated by using numerical simulations and explained by the decrease of the stress concentration and the stress state triaxiality and also by the delocalization effects that arise in the pantographic-type cores.


Catalysts ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 72
Author(s):  
Christian Zambrzycki ◽  
Runbang Shao ◽  
Archismita Misra ◽  
Carsten Streb ◽  
Ulrich Herr ◽  
...  

Core-shell materials are promising functional materials for fundamental research and industrial application, as their properties can be adapted for specific applications. In particular, particles featuring iron or iron oxide as core material are relevant since they combine magnetic and catalytic properties. The addition of an SiO2 shell around the core particles introduces additional design aspects, such as a pore structure and surface functionalization. Herein, we describe the synthesis and application of iron-based core-shell nanoparticles for two different fields of research that is heterogeneous catalysis and water purification. The iron-based core shell materials were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, as well as N2-physisorption, X-ray diffraction, and vibrating-sample magnetometer measurements in order to correlate their properties with the performance in the target applications. Investigations of these materials in CO2 hydrogenation and water purification show their versatility and applicability in different fields of research and application, after suitable individual functionalization of the core-shell precursor. For design and application of magnetically separable particles, the SiO2 shell is surface-functionalized with an ionic liquid in order to bind water pollutants selectively. The core requires no functionalization, as it provides suitable magnetic properties in the as-made state. For catalytic application in synthesis gas reactions, the SiO2-stabilized core nanoparticles are reductively functionalized to provide the catalytically active metallic iron sites. Therefore, Fe@SiO2 core-shell nanostructures are shown to provide platform materials for various fields of application, after a specific functionalization.


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