Interlaminar fracture behaviour of re-formed bamboo/aluminium sheet laminates

Sandwich laminates containing re-formed bamboo core and aluminium face sheets were produced using two different types of adhesive: an epoxy and a modified polyethylene. The interlaminar fracture behaviour of the laminates was characterized based on peel and lap-shear tests. It was shown that the laminates bonded with polyethylene had much higher peel and shear strengths than those bonded with epoxy. For the polyethylene-bonded laminates, the major failure mechanisms were a combination of cohesive and interfacial failure, whereas for the epoxy-bonded laminates, the fracture occurred almost exclusively along the aluminium/epoxy interface. There was a significant dependence of the failure mechanism and interlaminar strength on the loading direction relative to the bamboo fibre axis and on whether the aluminium sheets were bonded to the inner or outer bamboo surface.