Interlaminar behavior of paulownia wood sandwich composites with grooves

Abstract

Some grooves were arranged on the surface of the paulownia wood core, with the resins fulfilled. After solidifying, the resins left in the grooves strongly bonded the faces and core together. Therefore, the adhesive capacity between the faces and the core was enhanced. VARIM process was used to manufacture the specimens with different groove widths, depths and distances, and the DCB method was used to test the interfacial strength of the sandwich beams. Based on the energy release ratios from the test data, some factors are analyzed. It was found that the grooves can improve both the processing and interfacial properties. The present analysis provides the basis for the wide applications of paulownia wood sandwiches in future. © Tsinghua University Press, Beijing and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011.