PSI - Issue 77

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2026) 000–000 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect

www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

ScienceDirect

Procedia Structural Integrity 77 (2026) 331–338

© 2026 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of ICSI organizers The layered structure of the composite reduced the variation of the bending properties of plywood. Compared to aluminum alloy sheets of similar weight, the aluminum-wood composites showed superior lightweight potential as well as improved bending performance in terms of maximum bending force and impact energy. Bending behavior was comparable for PF- and PUR-bonded composites, with negligible debonding under quasi-static loading. EP-bonded composites exhibited pronounced debonding. © 2026 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of ICSI organizers Keywords: aluminum alloy; aluminum-wood laminates; bending behavior; hybrid composites; lightweight design; plywood International Conference on Structural Integrity Bending behavior of laminated aluminum-wood composites made of thin birch veneers – a prestudy Eva Graf a *, Tolgay Akkurt b , Georg Baumann c , Sebastian Wurm c , Jaan Kers b , Florian Feist c , Christof Sommitsch a , Josef Domitner a a Graz University of Technology, Research Group of Lightweight and Forming Technologies, Inffeldgasse 11/I, 8010 Graz, Austria b Tallinn University of Technology, Laboratory of Wood Technology, Teaduspargi 5, 19086 Tallinn, Estonia c Graz University of Technology, Vehicle Safety Institute, Inffeldgasse 13/VI, 8010 Graz, Austria Abstract The demand for sustainable lightweight materials that replace conventional non-renewable materials has strongly increased in the automotive sector. In this respect, wood as a renewable resource provides favorable mechanical properties. However, its low fracture elongation under tensile loading, susceptibility to splintering, and high anisotropy require reinforcement strategies to achieve the desired structural performance. Therefore, this study optimizes aluminum-wood composites for improving their performance under quasi-static and dynamic bending. The composites were fabricated from birch plywood, consisting of nine adhesive-bonded birch veneers (0.5 mm thickness each, bonded with phenol formaldehyde), reinforced on one side with a 1 mm thick EN AW-6016-T4 aluminum alloy sheet. To bond the aluminum sheet to the plywood, three different adhesives were applied: phenol formaldehyde (PF), two-component polyurethane (PUR), and two-component epoxy (EP).

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +43 316 873 9451 E-mail address: eva.graf@tugraz.at

2452-3216 © 2026 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of ICSI organizers

2452-3216 © 2026 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of ICSI organizers 10.1016/j.prostr.2026.01.043