Comparison between Stiffened Plate and Steel Aluminum Foam Sandwich Panels
Publication: Practice Periodical on Structural Design and Construction
Volume 29, Issue 2
Abstract
In civil structures, a lot of attention is paid to lightweight design, i.e., reduction in self-weight by design without compromising safety, integrity, and performance of a structure. The cost-effectiveness of lightweight design is another important consideration, as it can help to reduce the overall cost of a project. Thanks to the development of steel aluminum foam sandwich panels, a new lightweight design option is now available that offers a number of benefits, including reduced self-weight, improved energy efficiency, and increased durability. In this study, efforts were made to replace the stiffened plate by the sandwich panel with the aim of weight reduction. For this task, three different sandwich panels were selected, a sandwich panel made with face-plates S355, S690, and S1100. In this study, an arbitrary Huisman equipment was chosen which is made of S355 stiffened plate. This structure is redesigned with sandwiches S355, S690, and S1100. Static and buckling analysis was performed on the new design, as well as cost analysis, to evaluate the economic viability of sandwich panels. The findings of the study show that sandwich panels can be used to save significant amounts of weight, while still meeting other design requirements. Weight reduction of up to 30% can be achieved with the use of sandwich panels. The use of sandwich panels can increase the cost of the structure, but this increase can be offset by the savings in weight.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
This study is part of a master thesis carried out at Delft University of Technology in collaboration with Huisman Equipment. The first author thanks Ben van de Geer, Alexander Richter, and Havel Metal Foams for providing all the information related to the sandwich panel which was required for this study.
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© 2024 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 16, 2022
Accepted: Oct 19, 2023
Published online: Jan 18, 2024
Published in print: May 1, 2024
Discussion open until: Jun 18, 2024
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