M.

Tech Second Year Silvis, Bae, Trias, Abkar, Moin & Verstappen | 11-20-2017 | 1

Project Proposal Seminar 8-12-2017

|
1

Optimization of the Shapes of the Honeycomb Core for Sandwich Composites

Venu Gopal
18NA60R09
Under the Guidance of
Dr. Md. Rabius Sunny

Dept. of Ocean Engineering and Naval Architecture

Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
Contents
• Problem and Objective.
• Brief Outline of Work Done.
• Literature Review.
• Introduction.
• Advantages of Aluminum Honeycomb over GRP.
• Unit Cell and Manufacturing of Honeycomb.
• FE Analysis of Aluminum Honeycomb Sandwich
Composite with Skin as GRP and Aluminum
(Charpy Test).
• Results and Discussions.
• Conclusion.
• Future Work.
• References.
 Introduction
• A sandwich-structured composite is a special class
of composite materials that is fabricated by attaching two thin
but stiff face sheets to a lightweight but thick core
• The core materials are usually low strength materials but its
high thickness provide high bending stiffness and overall low
density.
 Description of a typical sandwich composite
• A typical sandwich consists of skins or laminates with a much
thicker (in relation to the skins) structural core in between
• The faces carry the tensile and compressive stresses in the
sandwich. The local flexural rigidity is often so small it can be
ignored
• Conventional materials such as steel, stainless steel and
aluminum are often used as face material
• The core’s function is to support the thin skins so they do not
buckle (deform) inwardly or outwardly, and to keep them in
relative position to each other.
• The core can be made of a variety of materials, such as wood,
aluminum, and a variety of foams.
Basics of sandwich composite
• The sandwich is analogous to an endless I-beam in the
sense that when subjected to bending, the flanges carry
in-plane compression and tension loads (as do the
sandwich skins or laminates) and the web carries shear
loads (as does the structural sandwich core)
 6
Idealization of Sandwich Structure:
• The Sandwich Structure can be idealized as I – Section.
Bending and Shear Stress Distribution:

Figure - 5 Bending and Shear Stress Distribution

•

7
 8
•
 Current study
• In this paper, a detailed analysis of the mechanical
properties of the continuum equivalent to the hexagonal,
square and triangular type structures
• stiffness comparison between the three core shapes for
the same core density and cell size is developed.
• The equivalent mechanical properties of the core
structures is calculated employing detailed finite element
models of representative unit cells and applying the
displacement approach.
Finite element models

Representative unit cell finite element models

 Advantages of Honeycomb Sandwich
Composite
• High stiffness and strength to weight ratios.
• No water absorption problem.
• Good thermal and acoustic insulation.
• High energy absorption capability with different
fillers and cores.
• Increase the interior space and ease of equipment
installation.
• Relatively light and the total costs are very
competitive to other light structures solutions.

11
comparison between a steel panel and a
composite sandwich panel
With the same criteria for deflection, the weight savings with
sandwich design is almost 90%. (This example compares standard
materials.) Additional benefits with sandwich panels are thermal
insulation, acoustic damping, buoyancy and corrosion resistance.
•

13