Simplified model for the design of composite sandwich construction

Over the past few decades composite materials consistently offered elegant solutions alleviating existing challenges in various industries. For example, major aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing, Bombardier and Airbus increased the share of composite materials utilization into their designs. Continuous progress in composites research and manufacturing technology resulted in making them more appealing solution to design engineers in virtually all industries. As early as the 1960s, composites were used to build parts of the ship superstructure. Since then the percentage of composite structures in ship superstructure is continuously increasing due to their many advantages [1]. Meanwhile the relatively high cost of composites manufacturing and assembly has limited them to military applications [1]. High specific strength requirements implied advanced composites technologies, e.g. autoclaving, since acquiring “one” commercial size autoclave is a substantial investment in the order of millions of dollars. Consequently commercial maritime applications from fishing vessels to bulk carriers are still dominantly utilizing steel and aluminum superstructure. On the other hand current advances in composites manufacturing including the introduction of new resin technologies can provide efficient solutions that overcome the high cost of manufacturing while maintaining their superior strength characteristics. Recent advances in composites manufacturing methods provide new Out-of-Autoclave (OoA) composites at a lower manufacture cost without sacrificing the strength advantages of advanced composites [2]. This is due to the fact that OoA composites do not require the use of autoclave by utilizing enhanced resin technologies. In other words using OoA composites eliminates the high cost associated to acquiring an autoclave as well as its overhead cost.