Abstract:
Sandwiched structure comprises of two parts: face sheet and core to withstand high compression and bending stiffness. This therefore results to a workpiece with sandwiched structure to relatively strong and light weighted. Nevertheless, the core of sandwiched structure may have a different geometric cellular shape, hence capable of bearing load in different degrees. This research objective is to study on the designed cellular structure of a pallet block using a 3-dimensional printing technique in order to support the face sheet against the compressive stiffness and buckling as well as bending. The pallet block samples were made of polylactic-acid (PLA) biopolymer and varied the thickness and geometric shapes of the cellular core. Mechanical testing including a three-point bending test was performed to investigate the bending behavior of the core and later a numerical analysis was also employed to investigate the compressive and bending strengths. The results indicated that, under the bending deformation, the hexagonal core structure outperformed other geometric shapes. In addition, the compression testing indicated that the vertical side of the triangular core structure also outperformed other structures.