Abstract
Specific properties such as the stiffness and strength-to-weight ratio of the sandwich structure have a great impact on aircraft performance. The current research introduces a design methodology to replace the honeycomb core. Four configurations of structure members with a corrugated core were utilized. The skin sheets were made from pre-preg carbon fiber composite lamina and the corrugated cores were made from the same composite with three different thicknesses in addition to a corrugated core of pre-preg fiberglass lamina. Also, other configurations were assembled boxes from the separate structure members. All configurations were subjected to edgewise compression testing. The failure modes combined with the experimental results demonstrate the importance of design optimization in developing the sandwich structure properties. Changing from open-contour structures to closed-contour ones, utilizing different core materials with good wettability, and controlling the load direction enhance the compression capacity-to-weight ratio of the structural composites and improve their fracture resistance.
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Acknowledgments
All Mechanical Engineering Department Team (California Polytechnic State University, U.S.A.) are gratefully appreciated for their support and permission for manufacturing and testing the samples of the current investigation as a part of a large effort for enhancing the compressive capacity of sandwich structures.
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Nagwa Elzayady is an Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Institute of Aviation Engineering and Technology, Giza, Egypt (IAET). She received her M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Design and Production Engineering from Cairo University in 2001 and 2012, respectively. Her expertise is in engineering materials analysis, composite material, manufacturing, and testing. Ten years of teaching and research experience at Cairo University (2000–2009) and at IAET (2010–2020) and other ten years (1994–2004) of professional experience at the Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI), Egypt.
E-mail: goga.2008@yahoo.com, h]+2 01022399953.
Eltahry Elghandour is an Associate Professor at Mechanical Engineering Department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal. Poly. SLO), USA. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Design and Production Engineering from Helwan University in 1989 and 1995, respectively. His expertise is in composite materials analysis, manufacturing, fatigue and fracture mechanics, and advanced finite element analysis. Twenty-seven years of teaching and research experience at the university level and nine years of professional experience before coming to Cal. Poly.
E-mail: eelghand@calpoly.edu, Tel: 805-756-1728.
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Elzayady, N., Elghandour, E. Design optimization to improve the performance of the aircraft composite structures. J Mech Sci Technol 35, 4381–4388 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-021-0909-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-021-0909-1