NUMERICALLY BASED STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF PARAMETERS EFFECTS ON FRP HONEYCOMB SANDWICH PANELS SUBJECTED TO TORSIONAL LOADING

In recent years, honeycomb fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) sandwich panels have been increasingly used in various industries. The objective of this study is to conduct a combined numerical-statistical investigation of honeycomb FRP sandwich beams subject to torsion load. In this paper, the effect of geometric parameters of sandwich panel on maximum shear strain in both face and core and angle of torsion in a honeycomb FRP sandwich structures in torsion is investigated. Effects of parameters including core thickness, face skin thickness, cell shape, cell size, and cell thickness on mechanical behavior of the structure were numerically investigated. Taguchi method was employed as experimental design and an optimum parameter combination for the maximum structure stiffness has been obtained. The results showed that cell size and face skin thickness have the most significant impacts on torsion angle, maximum shear strain in face and core.