Parametric Optimization Study of Honeycomb Core Sandwich Panels using Finite Element Method

This paper presents the finite element method (FEM) based parametric optimization of sandwich panel with a honeycomb core through ANSYS Workbench. The optimization is carried out by assigning isotropic properties to the face sheets and orthotropic properties to the honeycomb core, both made of Aluminium alloy (AL3003). Cell size and cell wall thickness of the honeycomb core are used as design variables, both individually and collectively, with the objective functions being the minimization of Von-Mises stress and overall deformation. The results indicate that cell size has a greater influence than cell wall thickness on directional deformation, overall deformation and von Mises stress distribution in sandwich structures. This research work demonstrates a complete procedure for parametric optimization through software simulation.