Mechanical and Dynamic Behavior of Banana/cork Sandwich Structures: An Integrated Experimental and Finite Element Study

The need related to the continuous rise of sustainable structural materials with superior vibration attenuation has intensified the study of bio-based sandwich materials in recent times. To conduct this research, a hybrid sandwich composite was fabricated using woven banana fabric face sheets and cork agglomerate cores via using vacuum bagging methodology and systematically tested on its mechanical, dynamic and impact performance characteristics. Experimentally, tensile, free-decay vibration, modal vibration, Charpy and Izod impact tests were used to test the behavior of monolithic banana fabric laminates and sandwich configurations with different core cork thicknesses. Finite Element (FE) models were prepared in Abaqus to reproduce the global mechanical and dynamic response and has been compared with practical experimentation. The findings indicate that although the addition of cork cores causes the tensile strength to reduce in a controlled fashion, it has a considerable effect in complementing the vibration and absorption of impact energy. It was found that damping ratios had increased over 200% with increased cork core thickness and that natural frequency had decreased roughly 25-40% which signifies that the damping capability of the sample improved in terms of vibration isolation. Energy absorption due to impact was enhanced up to 40% of L2, L3.