• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제78권5호
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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.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제58권3호
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• pp.397-422
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• 2016

In the present work, a simple first-order shear deformation theory is developed and validated for a variety of numerical examples of the thermal buckling response of functionally graded sandwich plates with various boundary conditions. Contrary to the conventional first-order shear deformation theory, the present first-order shear deformation theory involves only four unknowns and has strong similarities with the classical plate theory in many aspects such as governing equations of motion, and stress resultant expressions. Material properties and thermal expansion coefficient of the sandwich plate faces are assumed to be graded in the thickness direction according to a simple power-law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents. The core layer is still homogeneous and made of an isotropic material. The thermal loads are considered as uniform, linear and non-linear temperature rises within the thickness direction. The results reveal that the volume fraction index, loading type and functionally graded layers thickness have significant influence on the thermal buckling of functionally graded sandwich plates. Moreover, numerical results prove that the present simple first-order shear deformation theory can achieve the same accuracy of the existing conventional first-order shear deformation theory which has more number of unknowns.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제16권6호
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• pp.1023-1047
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• 2015

In this study, the optimal location of the MR fluid segments in a partially treated laminated composite sandwich plate has been identified to maximize the natural frequencies and the loss factors. The finite element formulation is used to derive the governing differential equations of motion for a partially treated laminated composite sandwich plate embedded with MR fluid and rubber material as the core layer and laminated composite plate as the face layers. An optimization problem is formulated and solved by combining finite element analysis (FEA) and genetic algorithm (GA) to obtain the optimal locations to yield maximum natural frequency and loss factor corresponding to first five modes of flexural vibration of the sandwich plate with various combinations of weighting factors under various boundary conditions. The proposed methodology is validated by comparing the natural frequencies evaluated at optimal locations of MR fluid pockets identified through GA coupled with FEA and the experimental measurements. The converged results suggest that the optimal location of MR fluid pockets is strongly influenced not only by the boundary conditions and modes of vibrations but also by the objectives of maximization of natural frequency and loss factors either individually or combined. The optimal layout could be useful to apply the MR fluid pockets at critical components of large structure to realize more efficient and compact vibration control mechanism with variable damping.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제63권1호
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• pp.65-76
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• 2017

This research investigated the vibration frequency of sandwich plate made of piezoelectric fiber reinforced composite core (PFRC) and face sheets of piezomagnetic materials. The effective electroelastic constants for PFRC materials are obtained by the micromechanical approach. The resting medium of sandwich plate is modeled by Pasternak foundation including normal and shear modulus. Besides, sandwich plate is subjected to linearly varying normal stresses that change by load factor. The coupled equations of motion are derived using first order shear deformation theory (FSDT) and energy method. These equations are solved by differential quadrature method (DQM) for simply supported boundary condition. A detailed numerical study is carried out based on piezoelectricity theory to indicate the significant effect of load factor, volume fraction of fibers, modulus of elastic foundation, core-to-face sheet thickness ratio and composite materials on dimensionless frequency of sandwich plate. These findings can be used to aerospace, building and automotive industries.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제22권1호
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• pp.105-120
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• 2018

In this paper, the nonlinear free and forced vibration responses of sandwich nano-beams with three various functionally graded (FG) patterns of reinforced carbon nanotubes (CNTs) face-sheets are investigated. The sandwich nano-beam is resting on nonlinear Visco-elastic foundation and is subjected to thermal and electrical loads. The nonlinear governing equations of motion are derived for an Euler-Bernoulli beam based on Hamilton principle and von Karman nonlinear relation. To analyze nonlinear vibration, Galerkin's decomposition technique is employed to convert the governing partial differential equation (PDE) to a nonlinear ordinary differential equation (ODE). Furthermore, the Multiple Times Scale (MTS) method is employed to find approximate solution for the nonlinear time, frequency and forced responses of the sandwich nano-beam. Comparison between results of this paper and previous published paper shows that our numerical results are in good agreement with literature. In addition, the nonlinear frequency, force response and nonlinear damping time response is carefully studied. The influences of important parameters such as nonlocal parameter, volume fraction of the CNTs, different patterns of CNTs, length scale parameter, Visco-Pasternak foundation parameter, applied voltage, longitudinal magnetic field and temperature change are investigated on the various responses. One can conclude that frequency of FG-AV pattern is greater than other used patterns.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제22권1호
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• pp.27-40
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• 2018

The governing equations of motion are derived for analysis of a sandwich microbeam in this paper. The sandwich microbeam is including an elastic micro-core and two piezoelectric micro-face-sheets. The microbeam is subjected to transverse loads and two-dimensional electric potential. Higher-order sinusoidal shear deformation beam theory is used for description of displacement field. To account size dependency in governing equations of motion, strain gradient theory is used to mention higher-order stress and strains. An analytical approach for simply-supported sandwich microbeam with short-circuited electric potential is proposed. The numerical results indicate that various types of parameters such as foundation and material length scales have significant effects on the free vibration responses and dynamic results. Investigation on the influence of material length scales indicates that increase of both dimensionless material length scale parameters leads to significant changes of vibration and dynamic responses of microbeam.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제28권5호
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• pp.629-639
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• 2018

In this paper, the vibroacoustic responses of baffled laminated composite sandwich flat panel structure under the influence of harmonic excitation are studied numerically using a novel higher-order coupled finite-boundary element model. A numerical scheme for the vibrating plate has been developed in the frame work of the higher-order mid-plane kinematics and the eigen frequencies are obtained by employing suitable finite element steps. The acoustic responses are then computed by solving the Helmholtz wave equation using boundary element method coupled with the structural finite elements. The proposed scheme has been implemented via an own MATLAB base code to compute the desired responses. The validity of the present model is established from the conformance of the current natural frequencies and the radiated sound power with the available benchmark solutions. The model is further utilized to scrutinize the influence of core-to-face thickness ratio, modular ratio, lamination scheme and the support condition on the sound radiation characteristics of the vibrating sandwich flats panel. It can be concluded that the present scheme is not only accurate but also efficient and simple in providing solutions of the coupled vibroacoustic response of laminated composite sandwich plates.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제23권3호
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• pp.251-261
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• 2017

In this paper, thermal effect on the vibration and stability of initially stressed sandwich plates with functionally graded material (FGM) face sheets is analyzed. Material properties of FGM face sheet are graded continuously in the thickness direction. The variation of FGM properties assumes a simple power law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents. The governing equations of arbitrarily initially-stressed sandwich plates including the effects of transverse shear deformation and rotary inertia are derived. The initial stress is taken to be a combination of a uniaxial extensional stress and a pure bending stress in the examples. The eigenvalue problems are formed to study the vibration and buckling characteristics of simple supported initially stressed FGM/metal/FGM plates. The effects of volume fraction index, temperature rise, initial stress and layer thickness of metal on the natural frequencies and buckling loads are investigated. The results reveal that the volume fraction index, initial stresses and layer thickness of metal have significant influence on the vibration and stability of sandwich plates with FGM face sheets.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제27권3호
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• pp.273-283
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• 2018

Nonlinear low velocity impact response of sandwich beam with laminated composite face sheets and soft core is studied based on Extended High Order Sandwich Panel Theory (EHSAPT). The face sheets follow the Third order shear deformation beam theory (TSDT) that has hitherto not reported in conventional EHSAPT. Besides, the two dimensional elasticity is used for the core. The nonlinear Von Karman type relations for strains of face sheets and the core are adopted. Contact force between the impactor and the beam is obtained using the modified Hertz law. The field equations are derived via the Ritz based applied to the total energy of the system. The solution is obtained in the time domain by implementing the well-known Runge-Kutta method. The effects of boundary conditions, core-to-face sheet thickness ratio, initial velocity of the impactor, the impactor mass and position of the impactor are studied in detail. It is found that each of these parameters have significant effect on the impact characteristics which should be considered. Finally, some low velocity impact tests have been carried out by Drop Hammer Testing Machine. The contact force histories predicted by EHSAPT are in good agreement with that obtained by experimental results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제22권1호
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• pp.91-112
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• 2016

In this paper, post-buckling behavior of sandwich plates with functionally graded (FG) face sheets under uniform temperature rise loading is examined based on both sinusoidal shear deformation theory and stress function. It is supposed that the sandwich plate is in contact with an elastic foundation during deformation, which acts in both compression and tension. Thermo-elastic non-homogeneous properties of FG layers change smoothly by the variation of power law within the thickness, and temperature dependency of material constituents is considered in the formulation. In the present development, Von Karman nonlinearity and initial geometrical imperfection of sandwich plate are also taken into account. By employing Galerkin method, analytical solutions of thermal buckling and post-buckling equilibrium paths for simply supported plates are determined. Numerical examples presented in the present study discuss the effects of gradient index, sandwich plate geometry, geometrical imperfection, temperature dependency, and the elastic foundation parameters.