Application of column buckling theory to steel aluminium foam sandwich panels
Aditya Vidwans (Student TU Delft, Sapienza University of Rome)
Patrizia Trovalusci (Sapienza University of Rome)
Nicholas Fantuzzi (University of Bologna)
José Correia (TU Delft - Engineering Structures, Universidade do Porto)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
In steel structures, a lot of attention is paid to lightweight structures, i.e. reduction of dead load without compromising structural safety, integrity and performance. Thanks to modern steel aluminium foam sandwich panel manufacturing technology a new possibility became available for lightweight structural design. Assessment and understanding of the behaviour of this sandwich panel under in-plane compression or flexure is crucial before its application in steel structures. Column buckling theory is considered and applied to the steel aluminium foam sandwich panel to evaluate its behaviour under in-plane compressive load. In this work, various assumptions are made to generalise Euler's buckling formula. The generalisation requires modification of the buckling stiffness expression to account for sandwich panel composite properties. The modified analytical expression is verified with finite element simulation employing various material models specific to steel face-plates and aluminium foam as well as various geometric imperfections. Based on this study, it can be concluded that Euler's buckling formula can be successfully modified and used in the prediction of the load-carrying capacity of a sandwich panel.
help_outline