Optimal design of sandwich panels with layered-gradient aluminum foam cores under air-blast loading

The dynamic response and design optimization of clamped sandwich panels comprising two aluminum alloy face-sheets and a layered-gradient closed-cell aluminum foam core subjected to air-blast loading were examined in this study. The numerical approach was first validated by blast test results of sandwich panels with monolithic aluminum foam cores, and then the dynamic responses of layered-gradient core sandwich panels were briefly discussed in terms of deflection response and energy absorption. Two surrogate model methods (i.e., response surface method - RSM, and radial basis function - RBF) were adopted to construct objective response functions, and the single-objective adaptive response surface method (ARSM) and multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) were used for the defined optimization problem. The optimization results show the trade-off relationships among the maximum energy absorption, minimum structural mass and minimum deflection, and the advantage of "Pareto front" in such design circumstances. Furthermore, the applicability and accuracy of RSM and RBF agent models in the multi-objective design optimization (MDO) of sandwich panels with layered-gradient foam cores under air-blast loading were also compared and revealed.