Experimental and numerical investigation on bending and compressive behavior of carbon-epoxy sandwich panel with novel M-shaped core

Present paper has experimentally and numerically investigated the mechanical behavior of composite sandwich panel with novel M-shaped lattice core subjected to three-point bending and compressive loads. For this purpose, a composite sandwich panel with M-shaped core made of carbon fiber has been fabricated in this experiment. In order to fabricate the sandwich panels, the vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) has been used to achieve a laminate without any fault. Afterward, polyurethane foam with density of 80 kg/m3 has been injected into the core of the sandwich panel. Then, a unique design was presented to sandwich panel cores. The study of force-displacement curves obtained from sandwich panel compression and three-point bending tests, showed that an optimum mechanical strength with a considerable lightweight. It should be noted that the experimental data was compared to numerical simulation in ABAQUS software. According to the results, polyurethane foam has improved the flexural strength of sandwich panels by 14% while this improvement for compressive strength is equal to 23%. As well as, it turned out that numerical results are in good agreement with experimental ones and make it possible to use simulation instead of time-consuming experimental procedures for design and analysis.

Experimental and Optimization Study of Compression Behavior of Sandwich Panels with New Symmetric Lattice Cores

The paper presents a novel core design for sandwich panels and conducts an experiment to determine whether the mechanical strength of symmetric aluminum lattice core sandwich panels can be improved. Both Design of Experiments (DOE) and Response Surface Methodology (Box-Behnken) were used to establish a quantitative relationship between the strength-to-weight ratio and the input parameters. The thickness of the sheet, the height of sandwich panels, and the width of the seat were all considered design variables to achieve the optimal state. The maximum Initial Peak Crushing Forces (IPCF) were then determined using quasi-static axial flatwise compression tests. This study found that the model's predicted values were consistent with the experimental results. As a result, the parameters were optimized using the Design-Expert software to maximize the initial peak force while minimizing the weight. The results were validated using the Genetic Algorithm, NSGA2, and LINGO. The results indicated that the height of the sandwich panel and the thickness of the sheet had the most significant impact on the maximum force and panel weight. To this end, it is concluded that introducing a novel core design for the sandwich panel, utilizing a suitable Snap-Fitting method for attaching lattice parts rather than using a paste, and finally optimizing the core were the primary reasons for achieving this level of strength.

Vibration Characteristics Research of Sandwich Structure with Octet-truss Lattice Core

Lattice sandwich beams are often subjected to vibrations when they are used. The aim of this study was to explore the vibration characteristics of the octet-truss lattice core sandwich beam by translating discrete octet-truss core to the continuous homogenization material. The natural frequencies of which are obtained by theoretical calculation and numerical simulation. The theoretical solutions are in good agreement with the numerical results. It demonstrates that the theoretical approach is effective to compute the natural frequency. Furthermore, the influences of truss member radius and thin sheets ply on the natural frequencies are also discussed. The outcomes indicate that the octet-truss lattice core sandwich beam’s natural frequencies are controlled via selecting the appropriate truss member radius and the face sheets thickness.

Machine learning assisted design of new lattice core for sandwich structures with superior load carrying capacity

Herein new lattice unit cells with buckling load 261–308% higher than the classical octet unit cell were reported. Lattice structures have been widely used in sandwich structures as lightweight core. While stretching dominated and bending dominated cells such as octahedron, tetrahedron and octet have been designed for lightweight structures, it is plausible that other cells exist which might perform better than the existing counterparts. Machine learning technique was used to discover new optimal unit cells. An 8-node cube containing a maximum of 27 elements, which extended into an eightfold unit cell, was taken as representative volume element (RVE). Numerous possible unit cells within the RVE were generated using permutations and combinations through MATLAB coding. Uniaxial compression tests using ANSYS were performed to form a dataset, which was used to train machine learning algorithms and form predictive model. The model was then used to further optimize the unit cells. A total of 20 optimal symmetric unit cells were predicted which showed 51–57% higher capacity than octet cell. Particularly, if the solid rods were replaced by porous biomimetic rods, an additional 130–160% increase in buckling resistance was achieved. Sandwich structures made of these 3D printed optimal symmetric unit cells showed 13–35% higher flexural strength than octet cell cored counterpart. This study opens up new opportunities to design high-performance sandwich structures.

The Influence of Variable Shell Thickness On the Vibrational Behavior of Composite Sandwich Conical Shells with Geodesic Lattice Cores

This paper investigates the vibrational behavior of sandwich conical shells with geodesic lattice core and variable skin thicknesses using analytical and numerical approaches. The filament wound conical shell has been considered to have varying skin thickness along the longitudinal direction. The smeared stiffener approach has been used to obtain the equivalent stiffness parameters due to the geodesic lattice core via the force and moment analyses of a unit cell. Superimposing the stiffness contribution of the stiffeners with those due to the inner and outer skins, one can calculate the equivalent stiffness of the whole structure. The equations of motion have been formulated based on the first-order shear deformation theory. The power series method has been implemented for extracting the natural frequencies of vibration. To validate the analytical results, a 3-D finite element model has been provided which is then used to conduct an extensive parametric study. The comparisons indicate an acceptable agreement between the two approaches. Moreover, the effect of variable skin thickness on the natural frequency has been examined. Furthermore, the influences of skin lamination angle, semi-vertex angle of the cone and stiffeners orientation angle have been discussed. The obtained results can be used for future relevant researches.

Application of an Additive Manufactured Hybrid Metal/Composite Shock Absorber Panel to a Military Seat Ejection System

In this work, a preliminary numerical assessment on the application of an additive manufactured hybrid metal/composite shock absorber panels to a military seat ejection system, has been carried out. The innovative character of the shock absorber concept investigated is that the absorbing system has a thickness of only 6 mm and is composed of a pyramid-shaped lattice core that, due to its small size, can only be achieved by additive manufacturing. The mechanical behaviour of these shock absorber panels has been examined by measuring their ability to absorb and dissipate the energy generated during the ejection phase into plastic deformations, thus reducing the loads acting on pilots. In this paper the effectiveness of a system composed of five hybrid shock absorbers, with very thin thickness in order to be easily integrated between the seat and the aircraft floor, has been numerically studied by assessing their ability to absorb the energy generated during the primary ejection phase. To accomplish this, a numerical simulation of the explosion has been performed and the energy absorbed by the shock-absorbing mechanism has been assessed. The performed analysis demonstrated that the panels can absorb more than 60% of the energy generated during the explosion event while increasing the total mass of the pilot-seat system by just 0.8%.

Compression behavior and failure modes of wood-based lattice core sandwich structure with improved relative density

In response to growing interest in lightweight, high-strength wood-based engineering materials, a lattice core sandwich structure made of plywood and birch dowels with improved relative density in its core was designed and fabricated. Flatwise and edgewise compressive experiments were performed to investigate the mechanical behavior of the sandwich structure. The effect of relative density on the mechanical properties and failure mode of the structure under flatwise compression was discussed. The theoretical and experimental flatwise compression test results showed good agreement. The results of the edgewise compressive tests of the sandwich structure indicated that face sheet wrinkling, crushing, and macro-shear buckling of the core were the main failure modes. The wood-based lattice sandwich structure has potential applications in the construction industry as beam and plate structures for buildings.