• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.169-187
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• 2019

This work presents a practical detailed finite element (FE) approach for the three-dimensional (3D) free-vibration analysis of actual aircraft and spacecraft-type lightweight and thin honeycomb sandwich panels. It consists of calling successively in $MATLAB^{(R)}$, via a developed user-friendly GUI, a detailed 3D meshing tool, a macrocommands language translator and a commercial FE solver($ABAQUS^{(R)}$ or $ANSYS^{(R)}$). In contrary to the common practice of meshing finely the faces and core cells, the proposed meshing tool represents each wall of the actual hexagonal core cells as a single two-dimensional (2D) 4 nodes quadrangularshell element or two 3 nodes triangular ones, while the faces meshes are obtained simply using the nodes at the core-faces interfaces. Moreover, as the same 2D FE interpolation type is used for meshing the core and faces, this leads to an automatic handling of their required FE compatibility relations. This proposed approach is applied to a sample made of very thin glass fiber reinforced polymer woven composite faces and a thin aluminum alloy hexagonal honeycomb core. The unknown or incomplete geometric and materials properties are first collected through direct measurements, reverse engineering techniques and experimental-FE modal analysis-based inverse identification. Then, the free-vibrations of the actual honeycomb sandwich panel are analyzed experimentally under different boundary conditions and numerically using different mesh basic cell shapes. It is found that this approach is accurate for the first few modes used for pre-design purpose.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.74-82
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• 2017

Fires in buildings built using sandwich panels are difficult to extinguish, and the damage caused by the fire spreading through the inner core material is extensive. Sandwich panels consist of a nonflammable material on both sides of an insulation material. The types of insulation material include organic and inorganic insulation materials, but the former are used in more than 80% of the case. Organic insulation is economically advantageous compared to inorganic insulation, but it is vulnerable to fire. Therefore, the damage caused by sandwich panel fires is higher than that for general fires. In the case of the noxious gas analyzer test, the panel is tested with three round holes having a diameter of 25 mm, in order to determine the risk of the core material, but the cone calorimeter test is carried out using a sandwich panel. In this study, the cone calorimeter test was conducted to examine the fire risk of the composite material when heated on a nonflammable surface, exposed to the core material through a hole, and heated directly the core material. The type of organic insulation employed was flame retardant EPS (Expanded Polystyrene), and the test specimens were tested in three types of sandwich panel, a perforated sandwich panel and single core material. The purpose of this study is to propose a method of measuring the fire risk of the core materials of composite materials using the cone calorimeter test.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.369-373
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• 2019

Construction industry is one of the largest markets for composite materials. Composite materials are mostly utilized as surface coatings or concrete reinforcements, and they can hardly be found as a load bearing member in buildings. The three-dimensional composite structures with considerable bending, compressive and shear strengths are capable to be used as construction load bearing members. However, these composites cannot compete with other materials due to higher manufacturing costs. If the cost issue is resolved or their excellent performance is taken into consideration to overcome disadvantages related to economic-competitive challenges, these 3D composites can significantly reduce the construction time and result in lighter and safer buildings. Sandwich composite panels reinforced with 3D woven glass fabrics are amongst composites with highest bending strength. The current study investigates the possibility of utilizing these composite materials to construct ceilings and their application as slabs. One-to-one scale experimental loading of these composite panels shows a remarkable bending strength. Simulation results using ABAQUS software, also indicate that theoretical predictions of bending behavior of these panels are in good agreement with the observed experimental results.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.615-636
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• 2014

Aluminium Foam Sandwich (AFS) panels are becoming always more attractive in transportation applications thanks to the excellent combination of mechanical properties, high strength and stiffness, with functional ones, thermo-acoustic isolation and vibration damping. These properties strongly depend on the density of the foam, the morphology of the pores, the type (open or closed cells) and the size of the gas bubbles enclosed in the solid material. In this paper, the vibrational performances of two classes of sandwich panels with an Alulight(R) foam core are studied. Experimental tests, in terms of frequency response function and modal analysis, are performed in order to investigate the effect of different percentage of porosity in the foam, as well as the effect of the random distribution of the gas bubbles. Experimental results are used as a reference for developing numerical models using finite element approach. Firstly, a sensitivity analysis is performed in order to obtain a limit-but-bounded dynamic response, modelling the foam core as a homogeneous one. The experimental-numerical correlation is evaluated in terms of natural frequencies and mode shapes. Afterwards, an update of the previous numerical model is presented, in which the core is not longer modelled as homogeneous. Mass and stiffness are randomly distributed in the core volume, exploring the space of the eigenvectors.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.169-188
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• 2001

This note presents the main results of an experimental investigation into the mechanical behaviour of a composite sandwich conceived as a lightweight material for naval engineering applications. The sandwich structure is formed by a three-dimensional glass fibre/polymer matrix fabric with transverse piles interconnecting the skins; the core is filled with a polymer matrix/glass microspheres syntactic foam; additional Glass Fibre Reinforced Plastics extra-skins are laminated on the external facings of the filled fabric. The main features of the experimental tests on syntactic foam, skins and sandwich panels are presented and discussed, with focus on both in-plane and out-of-plane responses. This work is part of a broader research investigation aimed at a complete characterisation, both experimental and numerical, of the complex mechanical behaviour of this composite sandwich.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.3666-3676
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• 1975

• Proceedings of the Korea Institute of Fire Science and Engineering Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.30-36
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• 2004

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.3594-3599
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• 1974

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.477-496
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• 2021

The main objective of this paper is to study vibration of sandwich open cylindrical panel with damaged core and FG face sheets based on three-dimensional theory of elasticity. The structures are made of a damaged isotropic core and two external face sheets. These skins are strengthened at the nanoscale level by randomly oriented Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and are reinforced at the microscale stage by oriented straight fibers. These reinforcing phases are included in a polymer matrix and a three-phase approach based on the Eshelby-Mori-Tanaka scheme and on the Halpin-Tsai approach, which is developed to compute the overall mechanical properties of the composite material. Three complicated equations of motion for the panel under consideration are semi-analytically solved by using 2-D differential quadrature method. Several parametric analyses are carried out to investigate the mechanical behavior of these multi-layered structures depending on the damage features, through-the-thickness distribution and boundary conditions. It is seen that for the large amount of power-law index "P", increasing this parameter does not have significant effect on the non-dimensional natural frequency parameters of the FG sandwich curved panel. Results indicate that by increasing the value of isotropic damage parameter "D" up to the unity (fully damaged core) the frequency would tend to become zero. One can dictate the fiber variation profile through the radial direction of the sandwich panel via the amount of "P", "b" and "c" parameters. It should be noticed that with increase of volume fraction of fibers, the frequency parameter of the panels does not increase necessarily, so by considering suitable amounts of power-law index "P" and the parameters "b" and "c", one can get dynamic characteristics similar or better than the isotropic limit case for laminated FG curved panels.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.725-727
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• 2005

In this study, the sound transmission characteristics of honeycomb structures are investigated with changing its thickness, shear modulus, and surface density. Theoretical predictions of aluminum honeycomb panels are compared with experimental results, which can furnish an in depth understanding of the insulation characteristics of honeycomb panels.