Investigation of energy dissipation capabilities of layered composites with natural fiber reinforced polymer foam core

The development of composite materials has made significant progress in various industrial applications. This advancement has enabled the production of materials with improved strength, reduced weight, high rigidity, and chemical resistance. Due to these properties, composite materials are used in many fields such as the aerospace industry, automotive sector, and marine industry. In this study, the production of natural fiber-reinforced polymer foam core sandwich composites was carried out specifically for the automotive sector. Sheep wool was used as the natural fiber. Two different types of polymer foam, XPS (Extruded Polystyrene) and EPS (Expanded Polystyrene), were used as the core materials. The fibers were bonded to the top and bottom sides of the foams using resin. Two types of samples were produced, with one and two layers on each side, resulting in a total of two and four-layered composites. The production process was carried out using the hand lay-up method and vacuum bagging technique. After the production, the samples were cut into standard sizes for testing. Compression tests, three-point bending tests, and low-velocity impact tests were conducted to analyze the energy dissipation capabilities of the produced samples. As a result of the experiments, it has been determined that the samples with a total of four floors provide better performance than those with two floors. Another result was that XPS foam samples performed better than eps. In the double-layered samples in the impact tests, rebound occurred in the 10 J impact tests, and punctures or stabs were detected in the 20 J tests.