Efficiency of sandwich bamboo-plywood floor panels with various core configurations

Abstract

This paper investigates the flexural behavior of an innovative sandwich panel using bamboo as a core material and bracing plywood as faces. The panel is referred to as Bamboo Core Sandwich (BCS) panel. A finite element model, which incorporates nonlinear material modelling and nonlinear geometry, is developed to evaluate the stiffness and strength properties of the panels under one-way bending. The model is validated against published results of an experimental test conducted on GFRP sandwich panel. BCS panels with different bamboo core configurations subjected to uniformly distributed loads are modelled to obtain the optimized geometric configuration of the cores within the panel. A BCS panel with dissimilar plywood faces is modelled to validate the effectiveness of thicker plywood face in compression in improving the panel stiffness and strength. Anisotropic plasticity theory is employed for the timber in compression (Hill’s criterion) and the Maximum Stress criterion to predict the failure of timber in tension. The numerical results indicate that while a higher core density within the panel increases the stiffness and the ultimate capacity, a more efficient BCS panel can be achieved using a fewer number of the bamboo cores in an efficient core configuration. It is also shown that strengthening the BCS panel with a thicker plywood skin in the compression face will enhance the stiffness and the ultimate bending capacity.