Directionality influence in sandwich core materials from natural sources

Sandwich structures are important for many lightweight structures and structures were sound insulation or thermal insulation are important factors. High-performance cores are multi-length scale materials that have directional behavior, i.e., different material properties in different directions. This feature is typical is many structures of nature, such as the one found in bee hives. The honeycomb geometry is famous for the nature-imitating honeycomb cores. In this study, new core materials based on natural raw material basis are evaluated in terms of mechanical and dynamic-mechanical performance. Out-of-plane tensile testing and characterization by dynamic-mechanical analyzer (DMA) are carried out to understand the potential of these sustainable core materials.