Experimental study of natural cork and cork agglomerates as a substitute for expanded polystyrene foams under compressive loads

Expanded polystyrene (EPS) is a material that is widely used in energy absorbing applications, especially in helmets, despite its non-renewable origin. Cork and its derivatives, however, are proposed as a substitute for polystyrene foam (EPS) due to their renewable origin and their easy recyclability. In spite of the low-environmental footprint of cork and its derivatives, there is insufficient data on their mechanical behaviour. Consequently, under dynamic and quasi-static loads, four different-density EPS, a natural cork material and five different cork products with different grain sizes and heat treatments were tested. They were compared in terms of their stress–strain and specific stress–strain curve, their volumetric capability to absorb energy, their specific energy, average decelerations and peak deceleration. Finally, EPS foams cannot recover their initial shape upon deformation due to their low resilience capability. This is especially important in applications such as helmets, which are bound to be subjected to multiple impacts. However, cork and its products could have this capability for resilience and would therefore be more suitable for certain applications.

Publication year:2021

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BOF-publication weight:1

CSS-citation score:2

Authors:International

Authors from:Higher Education

Accessibility:Open