All pet compostite and sandwich's manufacturing parameters optimization and mechanical properties investigation

Growing environmental concerns have stimulated the development of All-polymer composite and sandwich materials. These are an emerging environmentally friendly class of materials, since all their components are basically made of the same material (fibres and matrix for composites and even the core for sandwiches). The All-polymer composite and sandwich are therefore fully recyclable. This experimental project aims to investigate the impact of manufacturing parameters on All-PET composite and sandwich’s mechanical properties. A one-shot hot compaction procedure has been exploited and studied for the samples production. Different mechanical tests have been performed: - Tensile test: to understand which manufacturing parameters are more suitable to get the highest values of strength, strain and Young modulus on All-PET laminate; - Peel test: to investigate sandwich’s face-to-core bonding goodness; - Single edge notch bending (SENB) test: to understand if foam’s properties are affected by the thermal treatment; - Shear bonding test: to get the foam’s shear properties and to understand if the sandwich’s manufacturing process influences them; - Bending test: to determine the sandwich’s flexural properties by knowing the properties of the core material and the laminates; The All-polymer materials seem to be promising in the future since they have specific economic and environmental benefits. Their mechanical properties are comparable to heterogeneous composites (and sandwiches), and they are an alternative for small loads carrying structures where low weight is a design issue.