Issue 46

A. Akhavan-Safar et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 46 (2018) 266-274; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.46.24 268 SLJs and bulks manufacture The cork particles were mixed into the resin by SpeedMixer DAC 150TM using a centrifugal technique, to decrease the introduction of air bubbles and produce a uniform distribution of particles. The speed and mixing time were set to 1500 rpm and 90 seconds respectively. Initially, cork was mixed with the resin and the hardener was added later to the mixture. This procedure was the same for the different cork volume fractions. To manufacture the bulk specimens the mixture was cast in a mold. The tensile specimens were then machined into their final shapes. A typical bulk specimen is shown in Fig. (3). Figure 1 : Particle size distribution of cork particles with 125-250  m size [16]. Figure 2 : Microstructure of a micro cork particle with 125-250 µm. Figure 3 : Dimensions of the bulk specimens.