STUDY OF SNOWBOARD SANDWICH

STRUCTURES
C. Borsellino
1
, L. Calabrese
1
, R. Passari
1
and A. Valenza
2
1
Department of Industrial Chemistry and Material Engineering, University of Messina, Italy
2
Department of Chemical Engin
2
eering, Process and Materials, University of Palermo, Italy
Abstract The aim of the present research is to extend the knowledge of mechanical
properties both on single components and on complete structure employed for
snowboard. Flexural and torsion tests are performed to acquire important
comparison parameters between snowboard sandwich structures that differ for
the core material employed (wood, PVC foam core). A simplified FEM model
is proposed to simulate the flexural ts of the sandwich structure showing
good predictive capability.
Keywords: snowboard, sandwich structure, mechanical properties.
1. INTRODUCTION
The increasing efforts aimed to find out structures characterised by
reduced weight and better mechanical performances, in this last years, have
led to the development and the employment of sandwich structures in
recreation field or land and sea transportation [1].
The main problem in designing and verifying such structures is their
intrinsic anisotropy and non-homogeneity that does not allow their correct
modelling. Nowadays the available data on mechanical properties of
complex structures, necessary to allow a correct and reliable design, are not
sufficient [2].
In the snow sports, the number of snowboarders is increasing rapidly,
various industries are developing in the snowboards manufacturing field. It
is important to improve the quality of the composite snowboards to increase
the performance of the rider or to reduce the accidents risks. In this field few
works are reported in the literature.
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Materials, 967976.
2005 Springer. Printed in the Netherlands.
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C. Borsellino et al.
Usually the attention is focused to study the vibration properties of the
sandwich structure exploring the factors that quiet and damp the snowboard
on the snow [3] or to estimate the natural frequency of the snowboard by
using a numerical approach proposed for a free vibration [4].
But the manufacturers have introduced a variety of different snowboard
designs characterised by different materials and different shapes. The
selection and combination of materials and shape in the snowboard design
and building, at this moment, relies on a trial and error procedure.
To design a snowboard or to improve its quality, the mechanical
properties of the sandwich and its constituents are some of the most
important properties to be discussed [5]. In particular properties, such as the
bending and torsional stiffness, flex, twist, natural frequencies and damping
must be measured by laboratory tests [6].
Figure 1. Example of a snowboard sandwich structure.
The purpose of the present work is to extend the knowledge of
mechanical properties both on single components and on complete structure
employed for snowboard, focusing on the effects induced by different kind
of polymeric running surfaces and cores in the sandwich structure
performances. At first, wear, wettability and adhesion test are performed on
different polyethylene running surfaces. Then three point flexural test are
performed to acquire important comparison parameters between snowboard
sandwich structures that differs for the core material employed (wood, PVC
foam core).
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Study of Snowboard Sandwich Structures
The mechanical properties of each component are used as input data in
order to implement the FEM analysis by the commercial ANSYS code [7]. A
simplified model is proposed to simulate the flexural tests of the sandwich
structure. In addition numerical results obtained for the above mentioned
tests on complex sandwich structures are compared with experimental ones
showing good predictive capability of the model.
2. EXPERIMENTAL PART
2.1 Materials
In this work three different running surface are studied, an LDPE films
manufactured in our laboratory by a hot press, a traditional un-treated HDPE
film and a mechanical treated one supplied by Hidro.
At the same time three different cores for snowboard sandwich are tested:
silver fir (thickness 9 mm) with a mean density of 343.9 Kg/m
3
ash-tree (thickness 9 mm) with a mean density of 703.24 Kg/m
3
a PVC foam panel (thickness 8 mm) with a mean density of 61,4 kg/m
3
The top and the bottom laminate are realised using a triaxial 0/+45/-45
glass fabric, by Resintex (density 740 g/m
2
and thickness 0,67 mm), with a
commercial low viscosity epoxy resin, SR 8100 with a the SD 8822 catalyst,
by Sicomin. As decorative thermoplastic cap topsheet with a thickness of
0.3 mm ABS is used.
2.2 Mechanical testing
The samples, used to investigate the mechanical properties of the
snowboard sandwich structure, are manufactured by vacuum bagging
technique.
2.2.1 Running surface
To characterise the running surface two specific tests are performed:
Wear tests are performed on a pin on disc test machine. A polymeric
sample was placed on the rotating plate with a stationary stainless-steel
pin placed in contact on its surface. The wear tests are performed moving
cyclically the metallic pin, subject to a fixed load, on the polymeric disc.
The metallic probe point has a diameter of about 200 mm. The rotating-
plate speed was 0.074 m/s and the maximum contact pin pressure of
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C. Borsellino et al.
about 25.5 MPa. The pin-on-disk test is used as wear machine in order to
evaluate the weight loss of the worn material.
Wetting test: Contact angle measurements were carried out according to
the sessile drop technique and performed by the contact angle
micrometer. In order to measure the wetting angles, pure distilled water
at 20C temperature is employed to deposit a 1 l drop on the polymer
surface. The water drop is deposited accurately with a micro-syringe on
the sample surfaces. The contact angle is measured by a CCD camera
though the optical image (10 magnification) captured by suitable PC
images software. For each sample, the average value is calculated for 10
drops measurements. A surface profiler Tencor-P10 determined the
roughness vales of the foil polymer surface, before and after the
mechanical/manual abrasion treatment.
Adhesion test: The adhesion properties of the running surface are
evaluated by single lap shear test according to ASTM D 5860 standard.
The two parts of the joint are UHMWPE foil and a triaxial glass fibres
composite laminate. The shear stress was calculated by: T A , where
T is the maximum applied load and A is the joint adhesive surface.
2.2.2 Core
Two different mechanical tests are conducted to characterise three type of
materials used as core in the snowboard sandwich-structure:
Flexural test: The three point bending test is realized to determine the
properties of flat sandwich panel subjected to flatwise flexure. In this
case the sample dimensions are 9x40x220 mm, with span length of 160
mm. Since the wood core is orthotropic, the specimen is tested in
longitudinal and transversal direction. Mechanical testing is realised by
employing a Universal Testing Machine model LR 10K by Lloyd
Instruments. The crosshead speed is of 2.25 mm/min. Eight tests are
made for each sample condition.
Torsion test: The specimen dimension of the sample for torsion test is,
according to ASTM D194 Standard, 9x40x400 mm. The samples are
twisted by a manual torsion-test devise, and the relationships between the
torsion moment and the shear strain are obtained.
2.2.3 Sandwich
Flexural test: As for the core testing, three bending test are performed for
the sandwich samples, with dimension about 12x30x200 mm with a span
length of 160 mm. The crosshead speed is of 1.5 mm/min. The tests are
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Study of Snowboard Sandwich Structures
performed in longitudinal and transversal directions of the fibres with
respect to the load application point.
Torsion test: The procedure used to characterise the sandwich samples
under torsion load, is the same of the one used for the core. Particularly
the dimensions of the samples are 9x40x400 mm.
3. RESULTS AND DSCUSSION
3.1 Running surface
Figure 2 shows that the UHMWPE samples have a similar wear
behaviour.
0
1
10
100
0 1 2 3 4 5
Length (km)
Weight
loss [mg]
UHMWPE snowboard
UHMWPE
LDPE
Figure 2. Weight loss vs length in the wear tests.
Initially both samples evidence a gradual increase of the weight loss, then
a stabilization region is reached, where the weight loss is less evident. This
region takes place at a length of about 0.7 Km. Very poor wear properties
are shown from the LDPE sample. The next table summarises the result
about wettability and adhesion test.
Table 1. Adhesion and wetting properties at varying superficial roughness of the running
surface.
Roughness (m) Shear stress Wetting angle ()
1,27 0,184 86,4
2,28 0,217 80,5
4,03 0,589 65,9
7,42 0,676 62,8
25,75 0,826 54,8
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The wettability and the adhesion increase with increasing the superficial
roughness of the sample. The UHMWPE mechanically pre-treated have the
roughness of 4.58 m.
3.2 Core
Table 2 summarises the mechanical properties of the three different
cores. The values of G are obtained by three point flexural test at different
span lengths while the t is determined by torsion tests.
Table 2. Mechanical properties of cores.
E [MPA]
max
[MPa] G [MPa]
max
[MPa]
Ash-tree (longitudinal) 12142 122.8 879 31.6
Silver fir (longitudinal) 8535 45.49 431 9.8
Ash-tree (transversal) 1149 25.39 160
Silver fir (transversal) 256 2.49 33.5
PVC 55 1.39 11.8
The Ash-tree shows the best performance, because it has a high stiffness
combined with a relevant failure stress both under flexural and torsion
loading conditions.
3.3 Sandwich
The mean values recorded during the mechanical tests are reported in
Table 3.
Table 3. Three point flexural properties of sandwiches and cores
Longitudinal flexural test Transversal flexural test
Pmax [N] max [mm] Pmax [N] max [mm]
Sandwich Ash-tree 2342.5 9.2 1095.2 8.9
Ash-tree 1494.7 8.1 146.3 5.8
Sandwich Silver fir 1593 4.2 595.6 7.6
Silver fir 812.6 5.3 49.7 11.2
Sandwich PVC 319.3 4.4 297.2 4.8
PVC 26.5 24.3 26.5 24.3
The experimental results evidence the fundamental role of the sandwich
core in the mechanical performance of the structural sandwich that will be
produced and tested.
The experiments confirmed how the flexural resistance of the sandwich is
strongly increased by the presence of the fabrics, but they also show that the
fractures are influenced by the kind of core employed; usually fractures are
concentrated at the interface fibre/wood, except for the PVC-core sandwich,
where no fractures have been evidenced.
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Study of Snowboard Sandwich Structures
The mechanical tests have allowed the comprehension of the importance
of a good adhesion at the sandwich interfaces (able to delay a possible
delamination) because the most part of the fractures begin inside the core
and propagate itself toward the interface.
The indentation is high for the Silver fir and PVC-core sandwiches and
decreases at increasing the compressive yield stress of the core in the
direction parallel to the load application. So the study of the compressive
resistance should have an important role for the production of the wood-core
for the snowboard manufacturers to avoid the problem of the indentation.
The flexural response of the sandwich with a wood-core is very different
depending on the direction of the wood fibres with respect to the
longitudinal axis of the snowboard or if the core is in lath-wood.
The orthotropic nature of the wood is determinant in such behaviour
differences; the core in this case takes part directly to the mechanical
characteristics of the whole structure.
In this kind of sandwiches, the presence of a small number of skins (in
our case only one tri-axial fabric) emphasizes the mechanical characteristics
of the wood employed as core. From this point of view the study of the
mechanical characteristics of the core is fundamental in the design of a
snowboard table while the choice of the fabrics can be based only on the
necessity of increasing the mechanical performances (mainly flexural ones)
of the wood core.
By analysing the experimental data of flexural tests of the PVC-core
sandwiches we observe that the difference between the maximum loads
recorded in longitudinal and tangential direction are negligible and anyway
the maximum loads born by the whole structure are much lower than the
wood-core sandwiches.
Such kind of structure is characterised by the presence of a core with
very poor mechanical performances that is a mere support for the external
skins employed to increase the stiffness of the structure by separating them
from the neutral axis; in this way the structure will be very light and stiff.
For this type of sandwich the role of the core is almost negligible so the
design is oriented to the choice of the fabrics able to supply to the sandwich
structure the right stiffness and mechanical resistance able to provide the
adequate safety during the use of the snowboard table.
In Figure 3 the torsion behaviour of the tested sandwich structures is
shown.
By comparing the three curves we can observe that the resistance of the
ash tree-core sandwich is much higher than the others. Even if the slopes of
the Silver fir and the ash tree-core are similar (the shear modules for the two
sandwiches are respectively 1743 MPa and 1196 Mpa) the shear modulus of
the Silver fir-core sandwich is about 40% lower than the ash tree-core one.
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On the other hands the PVC-core sandwiches exhibit a very low
maximum moment and very high shear stains (the shear modulus is 169
MPa).
Figure 3. Torsion test of sandwich structures.
4. FINITE ELEMENT MODEL
A numerical simulation of the three point flexural test is conducted for
each sandwich structure using the ANSYS 7 finite element software. A 2-D
model with 8-node element (Plain 82) is realised. The mechanical and
physical properties of the sandwich constituents are obtained via
experimental tests or analytical studies [8].
Figure 4. Numerical and experimental load/displacement curve
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Study of Snowboard Sandwich Structures
The post-elastic analysis is intentionally neglected, the aim is to obtain a
simple and versatile numerical simulation, conditions always required in an
effective design methodology and, particularly, to characterise the composite
structure in the elastic regime, where it works.
The comparison of load/displacement curve in elastic field between
numerical and experimental data shows good overlapping, so it is possible to
draw out that the numerical model is able to reproduce the initial stiffness of
the sandwich (Figure 4). This result is similar for the other materials.
UHMWPE
Figure 5. Stresses map the along the woods fibres direction for a ash tree sandwich sample.
In Figure 5 the map of the stresses along the woods fibres direction for a
longitudinal flexural test of the ash tree sandwich sample is reported
The stresses distribution inside the core is un-symmetric; in fact the
compressive and tensile areas are subjected respectively to a maximum
stress of about 110 MPa and 100MPa. Such small difference is due to the
eccentricity between the neutral axis and the symmetry axis.
Similar considerations can be done for the lamina at 0, for these last we
observe that the tensed fibres and the compressed ones are subjected
respectively to a maximum stress of 240 MPa and 250 MPa. On the load
application area we can observe an intense stresses concentration. In
particular the maximum value is about 390 MPa. This fact confirms the t
slight indentation experimentally observed on such kind of samples.
5. CONCLUSION
Several experimental tests have been realised on the snowboard
constituents with the aim to get a precise mechanical characterisation in
function of their use inside the sandwich structure.
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C. Borsellino et al.
On the running surfaces, wear and adhesion tests show that
UHMWPE, mechanically treated on the side that will be in
contact with the fabric to increase the mechanical bonding, has
the best mechanical performances.
On the cores, torsion and three-point flexural tests, have been
performed. The Ash-tree shows the best performance, because it
has a high stiffness combined with a relevant failure stress both
under flexural and torsion loading conditions.
The sandwich structure, produced by vacuum bagging technique, has
been subjected to the same kind of tests as the cores samples.
The flexural response of the sandwich with a wood-core
evidences that the core takes part directly to the mechanical
characteristics of the whole structure. The study of the
mechanical characteristics of the core is fundamental in the
design of a snowboard table while the choice of the fabrics can
be based only on the necessity of increasing the mechanical
performances (mainly flexural ones) of the wood core.
For this type of sandwich the role of the core is almost negligible
so the design is oriented to the choice of the fabrics able to
supply to the sandwich structure the right stiffness and
mechanical resistance. From the manufacturers point of view the
production of PVC-core sandwich is still very interesting because
of the low-cost and easier production being still able to provide
the adequate safety during the use of the snowboard table
The experimental results are clarified by the FEM analysis that evidenced
the role of each constituent to the stiffness of the whole structure. tt
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