Ricerc@Sapienza

With a view to gaining an in-depth assessment of the response of particleboards (PBs) to different in-service loading conditions,
samples of high-density homogeneous PBs of sugarcane bagasse and castor oil polyurethane resin were manufactured and
subjected to low velocity impacts using an instrumented drop weight impact tower and four different energy levels, namely
5, 10, 20 and 30 J. The prediction of the damage modes was assessed using Comsol Multiphysics. In particular, the random

This study is devoted to the analysis of impact damage in composite samples by applying techniques of IR and
Terahertz imaging. The samples made of high-density homogeneous particleboards of sugarcane bagasse and
castor oil polyurethane resin were subjected to impacts with the energy from 5 to 30 J. The impact damage
defects were evaluated by applying one- and two-sided thermal non-destructive testing. Both the apparent
thermal effusivity and diffusivity were determined to analyse their relationship to impact energy. In the abovementioned