Jonathan Craigmile

120127241

MEC 3019

Sandwich Panel Optimisation Report

Introduction
This report details the design of a lightweight sandwich panel floor for an aircraft.
By plotting the limiting equations of sandwich panels for various core and skin
materials (as a function of skin and core thickness) onto a failure chart, the
lightest weight design can be found. The factors that govern the sandwich panel
are the maximum skin stress, maximum core shear stress, the skin compressive
stress that causes wrinkling, the core crushing load and the maximum deflection
of the panel. There is also a constraint on the size of core that can be
manufactured, PVC foam is only available up to a thickness of 100mm.
Analytical Procedure
By rearranging the governing equations to have the core and skin thickness on
the left hand side and evaluating the constants, the equation is in its final form.
Now many different values of core thickness can be set and using goal seek to
change the constant on the right hand side to 1, corresponding skin thicknesses
are found and then a graph of core thickness against skin thickness can be
plotted. A constant mass line is also plotted, the point at which the constant
mass line is just within the no failure region gives the minimum mass design
specifications.
Governing equations:
A plot of this equation gives the curve to describe maximum skin stress:

c 24 5 105c

s=
2

Where s is skin thickness, c is core thickness and 5x10 -5 is a constant calculated

by evaluation various material properties.
A plot of this equation gives the curve to calculate maximum core shear failure:

s=3.13 103c
Where s is skin thickness, c is core thickness and 3.13x10 -3 is a constant
calculated by evaluation various material properties.
The equation to find the critical skin thickness under a point load is:

s=

W
2 b c s

Where s is skin thickness, W is the applied load, b is the breadth of the beam, c
is the compressive strength of the core and s is the tensile strength of the skin.
The equation to be plotted to predict the critical skin thickness from deflecting
the beam is:

Jonathan Craigmile
120127241

MEC 3019

s (c +2 s)3 c 3

4b
150 W L2

Where W is applied load, L is the length of the beam, b is the breadth of the
beam, Es is the Youngs modulus of the skin material, c is the core thickness, s is
the skin thickness and Gc is the shear modulus of the core material.
To plot the constant mass lines onto the failure chart the following equation for
mass was used (This equation will give the mass of a 4m x 1m panel):

M
c c
bL
s=
2 s
Where M is the mass to be plotted, b is the breadth of the beam, L is the length
of the beam, c is the density of the core material, s is the density of the skin
material, c is the core thickness and s is the skin thickness.

Fibreglass Skin with Honeycomb Core

0.03

Max Skin Stress

0.02
Max Core Shear Stress

Max Core Thickness

Penetration

0.02

Skin Thickness (m)

0.01
Deflection

50kg
0.01

-0.05

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

Core Thickness(m)

Results

Jonathan Craigmile
120127241

MEC 3019

Fibreglass Skin with PVC Foam Core

0.03
Max Skin Stress

Max Core Shear Stress

Max Core Thickness

Deflection

93kg

0.02

0.02
Penetration
Skin Thickness
(m)
0.01

0.01
Constant Mass Line 2
-0.05

Constant Mass Line 3

0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

Core Thickness(m)

Jonathan Craigmile
120127241

MEC 3019

Carbon Fibre Skin with PVC Foam Core

0.03

Max Skin Stress

0.02
Max Core Shear Stress

Max Core Thickness

Penetration

Constant Mass Line 2

Constant Mass Line 3

0.02

Skin Thickness (m)

0.01

Deflection

44kg

-0.05

0.01

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

Core Thickness(m)

Aluminium Skin with PVC Foam Core

0.03

Max Skin Stress

0.02
Max Core Shear Stress

Max Core Thickness

Penetration

Constant Mass Line 2

Constant Mass Line 3

0.02

Skin Thickness (m)

0.01
Deflection

60kg

-0.05

0.01

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

Core Thickness(m)

Jonathan Craigmile
120127241

MEC 3019

Carbon Fibre/Honeycomb
0.03
Max Skin Stress

Max Core Shear Stress

Max Core Thickness

Deflection

31.2kg

0.02

0.02
Penetration
Skin Thickness
(m)
0.01

0.01
Constant Mass Line 2
-0.05

Constant Mass Line 3

0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

Core Thickness(m)

Aluminium Skin with Honeycomb Core

0.03
Max Skin Stress

Max Core Shear Stress

Max Core Thickness

Deflection

44kg

0.02

0.02
Penetration
Skin Thickness
(m)
0.01

0.01
Constant Mass Line 2
0

Constant Mass Line 3

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

Core Thickness(m)

Discussion
From these results it is clear to see that the lightest design incorporates a carbon
fibre skin with a honeycomb core. The reasons for this are that carbon fibre has
the lowest density and highest strength of all the skin materials being evaluated.
The aluminium honeycomb also has a lower density than the PVC foam
alternative.
5

Jonathan Craigmile
120127241

MEC 3019

An assumption of this report is that the only cost driver behind the choice of
materials is the weight of the final design, however, the choice would be much
more complicated if cost of materials and manufacture were also involved.
It is clear that the main limiting factors to the lightest weight design are the
deflection to which the panel can withstand and the maximum core thickness
that can be made. This is clear if the application of this panel is considered the
panel will be a 4m long beam in bending, simply supported at both ends. The
main limiting factor of the described design is the amount to which it can be
deflected before it is unusable.
Conclusion
If the only cost driver behind the choice of material for the aircraft floor is the
weight then the combination that comes out ahead from this report is a sandwich
panel with carbon fibre skins and an aluminium honeycomb core. The final
dimensions of this lightweight design are a core thickness of 132mm and a skin
thickness of 0.84mm, the overall mass of this design is 31.2kg. This is the mass
for a sandwich panel of the dimensions 4 meters length and 1 meter width.