Sergi Claudia, Sarasini Fabrizio, Tirillò Jacopo
Department of Chemical Engineering Materials Environment, Sapienza Università di Roma and UdR INSTM, 00184 Rome, Italy.
Polymers (Basel). 2021 Dec 30;14(1):134. doi: 10.3390/polym14010134.
Cork, a natural material from renewable resources, is currently attracting increasing interest in different industrial fields because of its cellular structure and the presence of the flexible suberin as its main chemical component. In an agglomerated form, it proved to be a compelling product not only as a thermal and acoustic insulator, but also as core material in sandwich structures and as a liner or padding in energy absorbing equipment. From this perspective, the assessment of its compressive response is fundamental to ensure the right out-of-plane stiffness required to a core material and the proper crashworthiness in the safety devices. Considering the complex nature of cork and the resulting peculiar compressive response, the present review article provides an overview of this paramount property, assessing the main parameters (anisotropy, temperature, strain rate, etc.) and the peculiar features (near-zero Poisson's ratio and unique dimensional recovery) that characterize it in its natural state. Furthermore, considering its massive exploitation in the agglomerated form, the design parameters that allow its compressive behavior to be tailored and the operating parameters that can affect its crashworthiness were assessed, reporting some potential industrial applications.
软木是一种来自可再生资源的天然材料，由于其蜂窝状结构以及作为主要化学成分的柔性木栓质的存在，目前在不同工业领域正吸引着越来越多的关注。以团聚形式存在时，它不仅被证明是一种引人注目的热和声绝缘体，而且还是夹层结构中的芯材以及能量吸收设备中的衬里或填充物。从这个角度来看，评估其压缩响应对于确保芯材所需的正确平面外刚度以及安全装置中的适当抗撞性至关重要。考虑到软木的复杂性质以及由此产生的特殊压缩响应，本文综述提供了对这一重要特性的概述，评估了表征其天然状态的主要参数（各向异性、温度、应变率等）和特殊特征（接近零的泊松比和独特的尺寸恢复）。此外，考虑到其在团聚形式下的大量开发，评估了允许调整其压缩行为的设计参数以及可能影响其抗撞性的操作参数，并报告了一些潜在的工业应用。
