Flexural behaviour of a sustainable hybrid composite panel using natural fibres

Although many efforts have been made to utilize natural fibers for building components, most were found to be either structurally or economically unviable. A bio-based building component with higher structural performance is normally achieved at the expense of significantly higher cost as a larger size is typically required. Similarly, reducing the size to maintain the cost will only produce a building component with lower structural perforce that may not competitive with conventional building materials. In order to overcome these shortcomings, a hybrid sandwich panel was developed where a natural fiber composite (NFC) laminate is placed as an intermediate layer in between an aluminum skin and an EPS core. This paper presents the research outcomes of the flexural behavior of this hybrid composite sandwich panel which can be manufactured as modular panelized system. Two different types of natural fiber reinforced plastics (NFRP) laminate were incorporated into the new sandwich panel as an intermediate layer and their performance were compared. The flexural behavior was investigated through experimental testing