Experimental and Numerical Characterization of Flexural Properties of Bio-Sandwich Panels

Sandwich panels are used in a wide range of structural applications due to their high specific stiffness and high specific strength. They are used in automotive parts like body panels, aircraft components such as wings, shipbuilding parts like boat hulls, construction and architecture, wind turbine blades, etc. due to their versatility and the ease with which their specific properties can be tailored to meet a diverse range of applications. In this paper, the proposed bio-sandwich panels are made of glass fiber laminates as the face sheet, and the core is made of epoxy-LY556 and CY230 with coconut shell powder as the filler. The proportion of coconut shell powder in the core material is varied to understand its effect on the flexural properties of the sandwich panel. Also, a numerical study using finite element analysis is done in Abaqus software and the results are compared with the experimental counterparts. The results show an improvement in the flexural properties of the sandwich panel with the addition of coconut shell powder. While using the CY230 epoxy system for the core, there was an improvement of 10% in flexural strength with the addition of coconut shell powder. LY556 epoxy system also showed similar improvement in flexural properties. Also, numerical results were found to be in line with experimental outcomes.