Optimized Stiffened Plates as Equivalent Structures for Sandwich Panels Under Ice Impact

Sandwich panels are known to possess high specificstiffness, high specific strength, and desirablemechanical properties for a wide range of applications.Despite all the advantages of these structures, somecatastrophic failures in the core part of sandwich panelshave been reported as a result of moisture penetration.Therefore, making an alternative and equivalent panel withsimilar mechanical behavior can be a solution to theseproblems. Due to the potential similar application ofstiffened plates and sandwich panels, the study of theequivalency of mechanical performance of a stiffened plateto an existing sandwich panel is beneficial. In this study,explicit finite element modeling was implemented tosimulate the behavior of these panels using the LS DYNApackage. Furthermore, an optimization procedure fordesigning an optimal stiffened plate under ice impactwas studied and the Taguchi method was used to find theoptimized designing point. The results revealed that thestiffened plate had the capability of having a similarmaximum deflection to that of a sandwich panel underlow velocity impact, while it had ۲۲.۵% lower von Misesstress.

Keywords:

Sandwich Panel , Composite , Stiffened Plate , Optimization , LS DYNA