Thermo-Mechanical Analysis of Laminated Composite Sandwich Plates Under Combined Thermal and Mechanical Loading
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22399/ijcesen.4993Keywords:
laminated sandwich plates, refined shear deformation theory, thermo-mechanical analysis, composite shelters, temporary housing, finite element analysisAbstract
This work presents a set of refined shear deformation plate theories that also account for transverse normal deformation, aimed at performing thermo-mechanical analysis of laminated composite and sandwich plates. Conventional plate models (Kirchhoff, Mindlin) often fall short when the structure is multilayered and is subjected to thermal gradients together with mechanical loads, so a more detailed formulation is needed. To address this, a finite element model was built in ABAQUS and used to study bending behaviour, stress transfer through the thickness, and the overall response of sandwich plates with different stacking sequences and core types. The motivation behind the study is the use of such advanced modelling to support the design of climate-responsive, temporary housing panels intended for post-disaster situations. The analyses show that changing the core material—whether honeycomb, polymer foam or balsa—leads to clearly different stiffness and stress patterns, and that the plate aspect ratio plays a major role in the observed deflections. The numerical results were compared with well-known solutions from the literature to check their reliability
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