Author(s)

Mohamed K. Hassan

Production and Design Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Minia University, Minia, Egypt.

Medium density fiberboard (MDF) is a highly competitive wooden material especially in office furniture industry. Damage and failure occur frequently in MDF due to low mechanical properties. In the present work, a modification was performed to enhance fracture properties of MDF. The MDF plate/core was inserted into two layers (face sheet) of glass fiber composite laminates using hand layup technique. Face sheet/core delamination involves the separation of a face sheet from the core material in a sandwich MDF. Therefore, delamination test using double cantilever beam (DCB) specimen was carried out. The test measured the debonding fracture toughness (G_IC) or separation strength between face sheet material (glass fiber/epoxy laminates) with MDF core material. The test is based on compliance strategy measuring fracture toughness (G_IC). It was found that the fracture toughness was increased. Extended finite element model (XFEM) based on virtual crack closer technique (VCCT) was constructed to simulate the delamination behaviors of face sheet/core materials. The model results were in good agreement with the experimental ones.

Double Cantilever Beam, Delamination, Face Sheet/Core, Medium Density Fiberboard

Hassan, M. (2017) Characterization of Face Sheet/Core Debonding Strength in Sandwiched Medium Density Fiberboard. Materials Sciences and Applications, 8, 673-684. doi: 10.4236/msa.2017.89048.