• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.523-536
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• 2017

A layerwise (LW) formulation based on the Galerkin method is presented to investigate the three-dimensional stress state in long sandwich plate which is subjected to tension force and pure bending moment. Based on the Galerkin method and the LW discretization approach, the equilibrium equations of elasticity for the long plate are written in the weak form and discretized through the thickness of the plate. The discretized equations are written in terms of displacement components of the numerical layers. The governing equations of the plate are solved analytically for the free edge boundary conditions. The distribution of stress state especially the 3D stress state in the vicinity of the edges of the sandwich plate which is subjected to tension and pure bending is studied. In order to increase the accuracy, the out of plane stresses are obtained by integrating the equilibrium equations of elasticity. The convergence and accuracy of the predictions are studied and various numerical results are presented for distribution of the in-plane and out of plane stresses in symmetric and un-symmetric sandwich plates.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.65 no.3
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• pp.275-290
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• 2018

The hygrothermal stresses in sandwich plate with composite faces due to through the thickness gradient temperature and (or) moisture content are investigated. The layer-wise theory is employed for formulation of the problem. The formulation is derived for sandwich plate with general layer stacking, subjected to uniform and non-uniform temperature and moisture content through the thickness of the plate. The governing equations are solved for free edge conditions and 3D stresses are investigated. The out of plane stresses are obtained by equilibrium equations of elasticity and by the constitutive law and the results for especial case are compared with the predictions of a 3D finite element solution in order to study the accuracy of results. The three-dimensional stresses especially the free edge effect on the distribution of the stresses is studied in various sandwich plates and the effect of uniform and non-uniform thermal and hygroscopic loading is investigated.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.70 no.5
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• pp.571-589
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• 2019

This paper aims to develop a quasi-3D shear deformation theory for the study of bending, buckling and free vibration responses of functionally graded (FG) sandwich thick plates. For that, in the present theory, both the components of normal deformation and shear strain are included. The displacement field of the proposed model contains undetermined integral terms and involves only four unknown functions with including stretching effect. Using Navier's technique the solution of the problem is derived for simply supported sandwich plate. Numerical results have been reported, and compared with those available in the open literature were excellent agreement was observed. Finally, a detailed parametric study is presented to demonstrate the effect of the different parameters on the flexural responses, free vibration and buckling of a simply supported sandwich plates.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.831-837
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• 2022

Numerical investigation on dynamic characteristics of sandwich plates under periodic and thermal loads has been presented by assuming that the plate has three layers which are a foam core and two skins. The foam core made of Aluminum has porosities with uniform and graded dispersions. The sandwich plate has been supposed to be affected by periodical compressive loads. Also, temperature variation causes uniform thermal load. The formulation has been established based upon a higher-order plate theory and Ritz method has been used to solve the equations of motion. The stability boundaries have also been obtained performing Bolotin's method. It will be indicated that stability boundaries of the sandwich plate depend on periodical load parameters, porosities, skin thickness and temperature.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.68 no.3
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• pp.325-334
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• 2018

The Nonlinear dynamic response of a sandwich plate subjected to the low velocity impact is theoretically and experimentally investigated. The Hertz law between the impactor and the plate is taken into account. Using the Extended High Order Sandwich Panel Theory (EHSAPT) and the Ritz energy method, the governing equations are derived. The skins follow the Third order shear deformation theory (TSDT) that has hitherto not reported in conventional EHSAPT. Besides, the three dimensional elasticity is used for the core. The nonlinear Von Karman relations for strains of skins and the core are adopted. Time domain solution of such equations is extracted by means of the well-known fourth-order Runge-Kutta method. The effects of core-to-skin thickness ratio, initial velocity of the impactor, the impactor mass and position of the impactor are studied in detail. It is found that these parameters play significant role in the impact force and dynamic response of the sandwich plate. Finally, some low velocity impact tests have been carried out by Drop Hammer Testing Machine. The results are compared with experimental data acquired by impact testing on sandwich plates as well as the results of finite element simulation.

• Advances in Computational Design
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.139-154
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• 2016

The usage of sandwich structure is extensively increasing in lightweight protective structures due to its low density and other useful properties. Sandwich panels made of metal sheets with unfilled cellular cores are found to exhibit lower deflections by comparing to an equivalent monolithic plate of same metal and similar mass per unit density. However, the process of localized impact on solid structures involving plastic deformation, high strain rates, temperature effect, material erosion, etc. does not hold effectively as that of monolithic plate. In present work, the applications of the sandwich plate with corrugated core have been extended to develop optimized lightweight armour using foam as medium of its core by explicit finite element analysis (FEA). The mechanisms of hardened steel projectile penetration of aluminum corrugated sandwich panels filled with foams have been numerically investigated by finite element analysis (FEA). A comparative study is done for the triangular corrugated sandwich plate filled with polymeric foam and metallic foam with different densities in order to achieve the optimum penetration resistance to ballistic impact. Corrugated sandwich plates filled with metallic foams are found to be superior when compared to the polymeric one. The optimized results are then compared with that of equivalent solid and unfilled cores structure to observe the effectiveness of foam-filled corrugated sandwich plate which provides an effective resistance to ballistic response. The novel structure can be the alternative to solid aluminum plate in the applications of light weight protection system.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.78 no.5
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• pp.611-622
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• 2021

Composite material-due to low density-causes weight savings, which results in lower fuel consumption of transport vehicles. The aim of the research was to change the existing base-plate of the aluminum airplane container with the composite sandwich plate in order to reduce the weight of the containers of cargo aircrafts. The newly constructed sandwich plate consists of aluminum honeycomb core and composite face-sheets. The face-sheets consist of glass or carbon or hybrid fiber layers. The orientations of the fibers in the face-sheets were 0°, 90° and ±45°. Multi-objective optimization method was elaborated for the newly constructed sandwich plates. Based on the design aim, the importance of the objective functions (weight and cost of sandwich plates) was the same (50%). During the optimization nine design constraints were considered: stiffness, deflection, facing stress, core shear stress, skin stress, plate buckling, shear crimping, skin wrinkling, intracell buckling. The design variables were core thickness and number of layers of the face-sheets. During the optimization both the Weighted Normalized Method of the Excel Solver and the Genetic Algorithm Solver of Matlab software were applied. The mechanical properties of composite face-sheets were calculated by Laminator software according to the Classical Lamination Plate Theory and Tsai-Hill failure criteria. The main added-value of the study is that the multi-objective optimization method was elaborated for the newly constructed sandwich structures. It was confirmed that the optimal new composite sandwich construction-due to weight savings and lower fuel consumption of cargo aircrafts - is more advantageous than conventional all-aluminum container.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.711-726
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• 2017

In the present work, by considering the agglomeration effect of single-walled carbon nanotubes, free vibration characteristics of functionally graded (FG) nanocomposite sandwich plates resting on Pasternak foundation are presented. The volume fractions of randomly oriented agglomerated single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are assumed to be graded in the thickness direction. To determine the effect of CNT agglomeration on the elastic properties of CNT-reinforced composites, a two-parameter micromechanical model of agglomeration is employed. In this research work, an equivalent continuum model based on the Eshelby-Mori-Tanaka approach is employed to estimate the effective constitutive law of the elastic isotropic medium (matrix) with oriented straight CNTs. The 2-D generalized differential quadrature method (GDQM) as an efficient and accurate numerical tool is used to discretize the equations of motion and to implement the various boundary conditions. The proposed rectangular plates have two opposite edges simply supported, while all possible combinations of free, simply supported and clamped boundary conditions are applied to the other two edges. The benefit of using the considered power-law distribution is to illustrate and present useful results arising from symmetric and asymmetric profiles. The effects of two-parameter elastic foundation modulus, geometrical and material parameters together with the boundary conditions on the frequency parameters of the laminated FG nanocomposite plates are investigated. It is shown that the natural frequencies of structure are seriously affected by the influence of CNTs agglomeration. This study serves as a benchmark for assessing the validity of numerical methods or two-dimensional theories used to analysis of laminated plates.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.611-632
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• 2019

In this work, a four-variable refined plate model is applied to study the thermomechanical bending of two kinds of functionally graded material (FGM) sandwich plates. The sandwich core of one kind is isotropic with the FGM face sheets whereas in the second kind, the sandwich core is FGM with the isotropic and homogeneous face sheets. By considering only four unknown variables, the governing equations are written based on the principle of virtual work and then Navier method is employed to solve these equations. Deflections and stresses of two kinds of FGM sandwich structures are analyzed and discussed. The validity and efficiency of the proposed model is checked by comparing it with various available solutions in the literature. The effects of volume fraction distribution, geometric ratio and thermal load on thermomechanical bending properties of FGM sandwich plate are investigated in detail.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.659-667
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• 2023

Nonlinear forced vibration behaviors of sandwich plates having graphene platelets (GPL) based face sheets have been researched in this article. Possessing low weight together with low stiffness, square honeycomb cores are mostly constructed by aluminum. Herein, the square shaped core has been fortified by two skins of GPL-based type in such a way that the skins have uniform and linearly graded GPL dispersions. The square shaped core has the effective material specification according to the relative density concept. The whole formulation has been represented based upon classical plate theory (CPT) while harmonic balance approach is applied for solving the problem and plotting the amplitude-frequency curves. The forced vibration behaviors of such plates are influenced by square-shaped core and the relative density, skin's height and GPL fortification.