Integrated design of aluminum foam processing parameters and sandwich panels under uncertainty

Aluminum foam is a useful material for lightweight structural and impact attenuation applications due to its excellent energy-absorbing characteristics. The aim of this study is to further enhance the performance of closed-cell aluminum foam-cored sandwich panels while satisfying given design requirements. A new design approach is employed, whereby the materials and product design are integrated, and which incorporates multilevel design optimization under various types of uncertainty in the analysis and manufacturing processes. Sandwich panels are designed by controlling the processing parameters for the foam core and panel geometry according to the design methods being used. The design variables are optimized through traditional multilevel optimization and analytical target cascading method. Inductive design exploration method is introduced to identify the feasible regions for the design variable in a design hierarchy to be insensitive to uncertainty. This work presents an in-depth examination of the design results and the efficiency of the design methods for pursuing robust design solutions.