Falling Weight Impact Properties of Palm Shell Reinforced Palm Oil‐Based Polyurethane Bio‐Composite Sandwich

Abstract

Summary The research focused on the usage of waste oil palm biomass such as empty fruit bunch fibre (EFB), dried palm shell (DPS) and palm kernel shell (PKS) to produce palm oil‐based polyurethane (POPU) composite foams, and applied them as sandwich cores. The sandwich cores were attached with jute/epoxy composite facesheets to fabricate high‐strength bio‐composite sandwiches. Sandwich cores composed of 32 wt% of POPU binder, 8 wt% of EFB and 60 wt% of palm shells. Three palm shell systems from different blend ratios of DPS and PKS such as 100:0 (100D), 50:50 (50D50P) and 0:100 (100P) were investigated. The toughness of bio‐sandwiches was investigated by using falling weight impact machine with the impact energy level of 29 J, 39 J, and 49 J. Results indicated that the sandwich using 50D50P hybrid palm shell core exhibited the highest peak load and lowest total damaged areas for all energies. Sandwich of 100P also expressed higher impact load and energy compared to those of sandwich 100D. There are no perforation damage on the bottom facesheet of 50D50P and 100P sandwiches at all energy levels except 100D sandwich at an energy of 49 J. In addition, no rebounding of the impactor was found for all sandwiches at all impact energies.

A review on recent advances in sandwich structures based on polyurethane foam cores

“…EFB was used along with palm shells as reinforcement to the PUF core by Cheng et al Single palm shells and hybrid palm shells—consisting of dried palm shell (DPS) and palm kernel shell (PKS)—were used in the study. The flexural performance and falling weight impact response of the sandwich specimens were investigated.…”

Review of literature on eco-friendly sandwich structures made of non-wood cellulose fibers

“…Cheng et al [123] experimentally evaluated the flexural and compressive behaviors of bio-degradable sandwich panels with face sheets made of woven jute/vinyl ester and core composed of PU, 20phr EFB, and various amounts of dried palm shell and palm kernel shell. In addition, Cheng et al [124] investigated the impact behavior of bio-degradable POPU foam sandwich panels with jute-reinforced epoxy face sheets. Niedermann et al [125] investigated the properties of a new glucose-based epoxy resin and reported their good application for use in foam-core sandwich composites with jute and carbon-reinforced face sheets, even at high temperature up to 160°C.…”

“…[177][178][179][180] deal with the behaviors of kenaf-reinforced epoxy core sandwich panels in thermal stability, bending, compression, impact, and water absorption. Zainol Abidin et al [181] performed an experiment to analyze the ballistic impact response of sandwich structures with kenaf-reinforced PU Bending [123], [125], [126], [127], [128], [129], [132], [133], [135], [137], [138], [139], [142], [146], [147], [148], [149] [110] [ 150], [151], [154], [155], [156], [157], [159], [160] [161], [162], [163], [166] Compression [123], [128], [132], [134], [135], [141], [143], [148], [149] - [154], [157] [164], [165] Impact/ crashworthiness [124...…”