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

Sandwich laminates containing re-formed bamboo core and aluminium face shee ts were produced using two different types of adhesive: an epoxy and a modi fied polyethylene. The interlaminar fracture behaviour of the laminates was characterized based on peel and lap-shear tests. It was shown that the lam inates bonded with polyethylene had much higher peel and shear strengths th an those bonded with epoxy. For the polyethylene-bonded laminates, the majo r failure mechanisms were a combination of cohesive and interfacial failure , whereas for the epoxy-bonded laminates, the fracture occurred almost excl usively along the aluminium/epoxy interface. There was a significant depend ence of the failure mechanism and interlaminar strength on the loading dire ction relative to the bamboo fibre axis and on whether the aluminium sheets were bonded to the inner or outer bamboo surface.