Global buckling analysis and weight minimization of honeycomb sandwich beams under humid environments using an analytical model and imperialist competitive algorithm

Two main goals are pursued in the present work. First, the global buckling of axially loaded sandwich beams with composite face sheets and aluminum honeycomb cores under humid environments is investigated. An analytical solution with high accuracy is developed based on piecewise low-order shear deformation theory (PLSDT) to estimate the critical buckling loads. A parametric study is carried out to examine the influence of geometric parameters on the buckling loads of simply supported and clamped sandwich beams under different wet conditions. The obtained results indicate that humidity plays a significant role in the buckling behavior of honeycomb sandwich beams. As the second purpose of the present work, the weight minimization of sandwich beams is studied. The optimization variables include the face sheet thickness, core thickness, honeycomb cell size and honeycomb cell wall thickness. Moreover, different failure modes, including global buckling, face sheet dimpling, face sheet wrinkling, core shear instability, and face sheet failure are considered as design constraints. Imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA), a powerful socio-politically motivated global search strategy, is applied to handle the constrained optimization problem. The optimization results show that the presence of humidity in the environment significantly changes the optimal design of sandwich beams and makes them heavier. Furthermore, it is observed that by increasing the length of the structure, the optimal design is more affected by humidity. Moreover, it is found that ICA is a very powerful optimization tool both in obtaining the best values of geometric parameters and in reducing the computational cost.