TY - GEN

T1 - Mechanical Characterisation of Green Sandwich Panels – Biomaterial Skins and Natural Fibre Cores

AU - Raghavalu Thirumalai, Durai

AU - A. Nassir, Nassier

AU - Ormondroyd, Graham

AU - Zhongwei, Guan

PY - 2017/11/16

Y1 - 2017/11/16

N2 - Green materials in construction industry are upcoming materials that boost energy savings and help environment replacing current materials with low carbon materials. The plant fibres and polymers are the naturally available resources, which are potential green materials in today’s scenario to deal with building insulation, biodegradability, ability to replace synthetic materials, recyclability, etc., increasing efficiency by reducing building impacts on human health and the environment [1-3]. Mostly current materials made of synthetic or fossil fuel based have a significant impact on the environment in the form of energy consumption at the time of manufacturing and produces carbon. Green materials are the materials that can produce zero carbon and can be reused or recycled; hence, significant reduction on environmental impact can be achieved. In the current work, authors demonstrated the use of flax fibres as skins and insulation fibrous materials as core materials for the green sandwich panel development. Thermoset resin are petroleum-based polymer, which is hazardous to environment due to non-recyclability. The authors considered bio-based thermosetting resin i.e. bio-epoxy resins to replace synthetic epoxy, which has more than 50% of the resin content derived from biomass. Authors characterized the green panels for the flexural characteristics and observed the failure of a panel. The strength and energy absorption capability of a green sandwich panels are further evaluated by standard test methods called “Low Velocity Impact Tests”. To compare the green panel performance, few tests are conducted with “polyurethane foam core sandwich panels” designed with epoxy resin (keeping flax fibres as skins). Test results demonstrate biobased epoxy/flax/insulation cores have capability to perform similar to epoxy resin panels in flexural and impact loading conditions.

AB - Green materials in construction industry are upcoming materials that boost energy savings and help environment replacing current materials with low carbon materials. The plant fibres and polymers are the naturally available resources, which are potential green materials in today’s scenario to deal with building insulation, biodegradability, ability to replace synthetic materials, recyclability, etc., increasing efficiency by reducing building impacts on human health and the environment [1-3]. Mostly current materials made of synthetic or fossil fuel based have a significant impact on the environment in the form of energy consumption at the time of manufacturing and produces carbon. Green materials are the materials that can produce zero carbon and can be reused or recycled; hence, significant reduction on environmental impact can be achieved. In the current work, authors demonstrated the use of flax fibres as skins and insulation fibrous materials as core materials for the green sandwich panel development. Thermoset resin are petroleum-based polymer, which is hazardous to environment due to non-recyclability. The authors considered bio-based thermosetting resin i.e. bio-epoxy resins to replace synthetic epoxy, which has more than 50% of the resin content derived from biomass. Authors characterized the green panels for the flexural characteristics and observed the failure of a panel. The strength and energy absorption capability of a green sandwich panels are further evaluated by standard test methods called “Low Velocity Impact Tests”. To compare the green panel performance, few tests are conducted with “polyurethane foam core sandwich panels” designed with epoxy resin (keeping flax fibres as skins). Test results demonstrate biobased epoxy/flax/insulation cores have capability to perform similar to epoxy resin panels in flexural and impact loading conditions.

M3 - Conference contribution

BT - English

T2 - 2nd International Conference on Frontiers of Composite Materials (ICFCM2017)

Y2 - 15 December 2016 through 17 December 2016

ER -