Numerical and Experimental Investigation of Static Behaviour of Aluminum Sandwich Plates

Abstract Sandwich composite plates, which are frequently used in aviation, allow the structural transportation of systems with high weights in airplanes, helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles thanks to their high strength. In this study, sandwich composite plates that allow the placement of mission systems used in aircraft, mission system processor units located in the aircraft internal structure are investigated. The deformation of aluminum sandwich plates under static load is analyzed by finite element method and the data obtained from the analysis is verified with a test setup. The Static Test Setup can examine the deformation on the plate by applying loads to different parts of the plates connected to it in different cross-sectional areas thanks to the sensitive laser sensors it contains. When the deformation values obtained as a result of finite element analysis are compared to the reference value by keeping analytical calculations as reference, the error rate varies between 0.7–8.5%; when the results of finite element analysis are compared to these experimental values by keeping the deformation values obtained as a result of experimental measurements as reference, it is observed that the error rate varies between 0–10.4%. The deformations that occur as a result of the loads acting on the aluminum sandwich panels were investigated by analytical calculations, finite element analysis and experimental tests and the results were consistent with each other in all three methods.