Cork-Based Structures in Energy Absorption Applications

The property of energy absorption (EA) is a fundamental principle in engineering structures to dissipate energy when it impacted with a foreign object or is exposed to an explosion. Due to their capacity to absorb energy, materials with cellular structure have high energy-absorbing capabilities. Cork is one of the materials found in the nature that has attracted researchers' attention due to its cellular structure for energy-absorbing applications. In this chapter, we investigate the energy-absorbing capability of cork materials. At first, the literature related to energy absorption structures with using cork materials was reviewed. Then, experimentally, the energy absorption ability of two types of cork (fine and coarse agglomerated) with two different types of synthetic foams (XPS and PVC) has been studied.