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.
KeywordsDouble Cantilever BeamDelaminationFace Sheet/CoreMedium Density Fiberboard
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