Bending energy absorption of self-reinforced poly(ethylene terephthalate) composite sandwich beams

Fully recyclable corrugated sandwich beams made from self-reinforced poly(ethylene terephthalate) SrPET are manufactured and tested in quasi-static three-point bending. For a constant areal mass, the influence of mass distribution on peak load and energy absorption is investigated. Beams with a higher proportion of their mass distributed in the core generally show higher peak loads and energy absorption. A finite element (FE) model was developed using an anisotropic visco-plastic constitutive material law. The FE predictions are in excellent agreement with the measurements. When comparing to sandwich beams with similar weight and geometry of different materials, the SrPET sandwich beams outperform corrugated sandwich beams made from aluminium in terms of peak load and energy absorption.