Open-Mode Debonding Analysis of Curved Sandwich Panels Subjected to Heating and Cryogenic Cooling on Opposite Faces

Increasing use of curved sandwich panels as aerospace structure components makes it vital to fully understand their thermostructural behavior and identify key factors affecting the open-mode debonding failure. Open-mode debonding analysis is performed on a family of curved honeycomb-core sandwich panels with different radii of curvature. The curved sandwich panels are either simply supported or clamped, and are subjected to uniform heating on the convex side and uniform cryogenic cooling on the concave side. The finite-element method was used to study the effects of panel curvature and boundary condition on the open-mode stress (radial tensile stress) and displacement fields in the curved sandwich panels. The critical stress point, where potential debonding failure could initiate, was found to be at the midspan (or outer span) of the inner bonding interface between the sandwich core and face sheet on the concave side, depending on the boundary condition and panel curvature. Open-mode stress increases with increasing panel curvature, reaching a maximum value at certain high curvature, and then decreases slightly as the panel curvature continues to increase and approach that of quarter circle. Changing the boundary condition from simply supported to clamped reduces the magnitudes of open-mode stresses and the associated sandwich core depth stretching.Ko, William L.Armstrong Flight Research CenterAEROSPACE ENGINEERING; SANDWICH STRUCTURES; DEBONDING (MATERIALS); STRESS DISTRIBUTION; CURVED PANELS; STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING; HONEYCOMB CORES; CURVATURE; FINITE ELEMENT METHOD; TENSILE STRESS; DEFORMATION; BOUNDARY CONDITIONS; CRITICAL LOADING; STRETCHING