The review outlines modern trends in theoretical developments, novel designs and modern applications of sandwich structures. The most recent work published at the time of writing of this review is considered, older sources are listed only on as-needed basis. The review begins with the discussion on the analytical models and methods of analysis of sandwich structures as well as representative problems utilizing or comparing these models. Novel designs of sandwich structures is further elucidated concentrating on miscellaneous cores, introduction of nanotubes and smart materials in the elements of a sandwich structure as well as using functionally graded designs. Examples of problems experienced by developers and designers of sandwich structures, including typical damage, response under miscellaneous loads, environmental effects and fire are considered. Sample applications of sandwich structures included in the review concentrate on aerospace, civil and marine engineering, electronics and biomedical areas. Finally, the authors suggest a list of areas where they envision a pressing need in further research.

Review of current trends in research and applications of sandwich structures

Fibre-hybrid composites are composed of two or more fibre types in a matrix. Such composites offer more design freedom than non-hybrid composites. The aim is often to alleviate the drawbacks of one of the fibre types while keeping the benefits of the other. The hybridisation can also lead to synergetic effects or to properties that neither of the constituents possess. Even though fibre-hybrid composites are attractive, they also pose more challenges in terms of materials selection than conventional, single fibre type composites. This review analyses the mechanisms for synergetic effects provides guidance on the fibre and matrix selection and describes recent opportunities and trends. It finishes by describing the current applications, and by contrasting how the industrial use is different from the academic research.

Recent advances in fibre-hybrid composites: materials selection, opportunities and applications

Three-point bending of sandwich beams with aluminum foam-filled corrugated cores

Crashworthiness investigation of the bio-inspired bi-directionally corrugated core sandwich panel under quasi-static crushing load

Hierarchical sandwich structures have been popularly investigated due to its promotion in structural stress and stiffness. A composite Honeycomb structure Filled with Circular Tubes (short as HFCT) was proposed in the previous study. In this paper, the blast resistance performances of sandwich plate filled with HFCT core (short as SP-HFCT) are investigated numerically by considering plastic dissipation energy, deflection of back face-sheet and deformation modes. The comparisons of performance between the general honeycomb sandwich plate (short as GHP) and the SP-HFCT illustrate that the composited filling mode can effectively improve blast resistant capacity by reducing the maximum deflection of the back plate and improving the ratio of plastic energy dissipated by cellular core to the total plastic energy dissipated by sandwich plate. Parametric analyses are performed to evaluate the influence of matching effect between container and filler, filling mode and blast loading on the resistance performance of SP-HFCT. The results show that a stronger honeycomb container filled with weaker circular tubes is a more favorable configuration of HFCT core. Meanwhile, by filling circular tubes into a buckling area, a considerable mass efficiency improvement with respect to deflection resistance can be obtained. With the increasing of stand-off distance, the effectiveness of SP-HFCT against blast loads will be boosted.

Blast resistance and parametric study of sandwich structure consisting of honeycomb core filled with circular metallic tubes

Experimental and numerical study of foam filled corrugated core steel sandwich structures subjected to blast loading

Fatigue life behaviour of the dual-phase low carbon steel sheets

Designing foam filled sandwich panels for blast mitigation using a hybrid evolutionary optimization algorithm

Shock tube experiments were performed to investigate the blast response of corrugated steel cellular core sandwich panels filled with a silicone based syntactic foam at room and high temperatures. ...

Shock response of filled corrugated sandwich structures under extreme temperatures

An experimental/numerical study was conducted to evaluate the blast performance of corrugated core steel sandwich structures with foam fillings. The core was preferentially filled with foam with the objective of creating a structure with superiror blast mitigation properties. Different core filling strategies used in the study are shown in Fig. 1(a). Core topologies were arranged as soft/hard, soft/hard/soft, hard/soft/hard and hard/soft as multilayers towards the blast loading direction. The experimental set-up is shown in figure 1(b). The blast loading was imparted using a shock tube facility and the resulting dynamic event was photographed using a high speed camera. Numerical analyses were performed using ABAQUS/EXPLICIT finite element software. The loading profile and material discretization used for numerical simulation are shown in Fig. 2. The material properties of the face sheets and the corrugations were used for standard low carbon steel material. General purpose humidity cured polyurethane foam was used for filling corrugations. The Johnson Cook material model with strain hardening and Ogden was used in Abaqus as material model for low carbon steel and PU foam, respectively. Numerical models were verified by using deflection data from high speed camera measurements. The experimental and numerical results shown in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4, respectively, illustrate that Soft/hard foam core arrangement strategies are most effective in mitigating blast and give the smallest back face displacements under shock loading.

Murat Yazici

Papers

Experimental and numerical study of foam filled corrugated core steel sandwich structures subjected to blast loading

Fatigue life behaviour of the dual-phase low carbon steel sheets

Designing foam filled sandwich panels for blast mitigation using a hybrid evolutionary optimization algorithm

Shock response of filled corrugated sandwich structures under extreme temperatures

Preferentially Filled Foam Core Corrugated Steel Sandwich Structures for Improved Blast Performance