Static crushing of wood based sandwich composite tubes

This study presents static compression of sandwich tubes for crash applications in the transportation industry. The tubes were made from “I214” poplar veneers for the core, and carbon or glass woven plies reinforced with epoxy resin composites for the skins. The number of I214 layers in the core was varied between 2 and 6 while keeping the same number of plies for the skins. The results reveal interesting energy absorption performance of such structures in static, together with a coupling effect. In comparison with reference, all-carbon tubes, the sandwich tubes with carbon fibre skins having six I214 poplar plies showed an increase in mass of 75.2 g (+271%), a slightly degraded Specific Energy Absorption (- 7.2 J / g, − 10%), and an increase in the energy absorbed (+3,017 J, + 242%). For sandwich tubes with glass fibre skins having six I214 poplar plies, the SEA improved (+16 J / g, + 75%), the energy absorbed increased by 2,192 J (+602%) and the mass increased by 75.3 g (+314%). The SEA levels obtained were of the order of 61.2 J / g for sandwich tubes with carbon fibres and 32.5 J / g for those made of glass fibres (average values from static tests on all configurations).