COMPOSITE MATERIALS

AE 537

Lecture 3
STRUCTURAL SANDWICH PANEL
 APPLICATIONS

Sandwich panel
construction is main
material emphasis:
Interior aircraft panels
(e.g. sidewalls and flooring)
 Exterior aircraft panels
(e.g. flaps and ailerons)
Ship and boat hulls
Ceilings, walls, and floors
of structures.
 Can be used for isolation
APPLICATIONS
 SANDWICH PANEL COMPONENT

Stiff strong skin, separated by light weight core

 Face Sheet : carries load
Metal, Fiber reinforced composite

 Core: Separate face sheets to increase stiffness

Al or paper resin honeycomb
Metallic/polymeric foam or Palsa wood

 Design Requirements :
Stiffness, Service loads, Weight
 SANDWICH PANEL GENERAL DESIGN GOAL

Objective is to optimize strength/weight and stiffness/weight ratios

. .

 t : face sheet thickness increases and E f increases , increases

 Support higher loads
 Resist impact and point loads

 C: core thickness increases, (EI)eff increases

 Stiffness increase
 STIFFNESS AND WEIGHT OPTIMIZATION

Objective is to formulate an objective function fn for E eff as a function of wt

1. For face sheet get Ef and

(face sheet is a dense material and parameters
can be obtained directly from tables)

2. For core , modulus can be calculated as:

where are the properties of the dense material of the core

where are the properties of the dense material of the core

For low density core

 STIFFNESS AND WEIGHT OPTIMIZATION

3. For flexural stiffness calculate (𝐸𝐼)𝑒𝑞 (equivalent EI)

Using the parallel axis theory

.
 If Ec << Ef (ignore part 1 of the equation)
 If t is very small then t3 is too small ( ignore part 2)
 If t is very small then d c

Then (EI)eq equation reduces to :

. We can see from this equation that (EI) eq depends

mainly on fiber modulus and core thickness c .
 STIFFNESS AND WEIGHT OPTIMIZATION

4. For shear stiffness calculate (GA)𝑒𝑞 (equivalent GA)

Using the parallel axis theory

. A= Ixx+ Iyy

 If t is very small then d c

Then (GA)eq equation reduces to :

. We can see from this equation that (GA) eq depends

mainly on core shear modulus and core thickness c .
 STIFFNESS AND WEIGHT OPTIMIZATION

5. Where do we use (EI)eq and (GA)𝑒𝑞 (equivalent EI and GA)

Under any load p , the beam deflection will be the summation of of beam deflection due
bending ( flexure) and the beam deflection due shear. The general equation is :

.
B1 and B2 are constants and depends on the type of loading , some values are provided
in the following table
STIFFNESS AND WEIGHT OPTIMIZATION
 STIFFNESS AND WEIGHT OPTIMIZATION

6. From equation find /p

.
Note that (GA)eq has term on it where (GA)eq =
and Gc = same for (EI)eq
The weight w can be calculated using :

=
note that mass= Density . Volume
 STIFFNESS AND WEIGHT OPTIMIZATION

7. Rewrite equation of in terms of and substitute in weight equation ( very complicated)

Now: dw/dt = 0 will give the optimal thickness of the face sheet t opt
dw/dc = 0 will give the optimal thickness of the core copt

Substitute topt, copt into stiffness equation () to get ρc opt

After solving we get:

Design constrains

We will not use this method afterward

 STIFFNESS AND WEIGHT OPTIMIZATION

An easier way for optimal design is to use graphs, note that we can write the weight equation as:

=
This is a linear equation with (c/l) in x direction and (t/l) in y direction. If the materials are known then
Changing W will give straight lines and we use graphs to optimize for specific requirement.
Optimal parameters for a given
stiffness constant (p/)
 SUMMARY OF EQUATIONS
Optimization

• ( stiffness)
• (shear stiffness)

• =
 STRENGTH OPTIMIZATION OF SANDWICH PANELS
WITH CELLULAR CORE
Sandwich panel strength is derived from the first failure mode to commence

We need expressions for normal and shear stresses for both the core and the face sheet to check for failure

1) Normal stresses

Normal stresses can be derived from the moment after bending as:

, y is d/2 or can be written as c/2 , It can be substituted from (EI)eq

So :

Max normal stress on the face sheet material

Maximum Normal stress on the core material

STRENGTH OPTIMIZATION OF SANDWICH PANELS
WITH CELLULAR CORE
With and

Max normal stress on the face sheet material

Maximum normal stress on the core material

 STRENGTH OPTIMIZATION OF SANDWICH PANELS
WITH CELLULAR CORE
2) shear stresses
Shear stresses vary parabolically through the cross-section, but if Ef >>Ec and c>>t

Note that Q here is the shear force, B4 relates Qmax to the applied force

Substituting we get :
 FAILURE MODES

Face:
 Can yield compressible face
 Can buckle locally (wrinkling)
 Core:
 Can fail in shear
 Can have debonding
 Can indentation
 FAILURE MODES

Face yielding

Face wrinkling:
when normal stress in the face = local buckling stress
 FAILURE MODES

Core shear failure

 In general the shear stress in the core is much higher than the
normal stress for sandwich panels where they are used for
transverse load
 If no axial loading , shear stress is only considered in sandwich
panel design

is the yield stress for the dense core material

 FAILURE MODES

Core indentation
Maximum normal stress on the core material
should be less than the the
indentation allowed stress ( collapse strength)

For honeycomb with regular hexagonal cells this approach predicts the collapse strength

Then : is the yield stress for the dense core material

=

( )
5
𝜌𝑐 3
3.25 𝜎 𝑦𝑠 𝐵3 𝑏𝑡𝑐
𝜌𝑠
𝑃𝑐𝑖= This equation is different for
𝑙
𝐸𝑐
𝐸𝑓 ( ) other core shapes
 FAILURE MODES

Adhesive bond failure

Usually the adhesive (Epoxy) is stronger than the core. With flexure
loading a crack like defect will propagate through the adhesive and
cause depending. The applied stress at the adhesive layer can be
considered equal to the face sheet stress, that is :

Maximum normal stress on the face sheet material where is the adhesive stress.

For crack propagation we use the concept of adhesion energy G c with units of ( j/m2)
the failure will occur if we exceed:
Then :

If Gc = 1 j/m2 Ef =70 Gpa and t=1mm

then
FAILURE MODE MAP
FAILURE MODE MAP
FAILURE MODE MAP
SANDWICH PANEL OPTIMIZATION
SANDWICH PANEL OPTIMIZATION