Extension of a new tailoring optimisation technique to sandwich shells with laminated faces

The tailoring optimization technique recently developed by the author for improving structural response and energy absorption of composites is extended to sandwich shells using a previously developed zig-zag shell model with hierarchic representation of displacements. The in-plane variation of the stiffness properties of plies and the through-the thickness variation of the core properties are determined solving the Euler–Lagrange equations of an extremal problem in which the strain energy due to out-of-plane strains and stresses is minimised, while that due to their in-plane counterparts is maximised. In this way, the energy stored by unwanted out-of-plane modes involving weak properties is transferred to acceptable in-plane modes. As shown by the numerical applications, the critical interlaminar stress concentrations at the interfaces with the core are consistently reduced without any bending stiffness loss and the strength to debonding of faces from the core is improved. The structural model was recently developed by the author to accurately describe strain energy and interlaminar stresses from the constitutive equations. It a priori fulfills the displacement and stress contact conditions at the interfaces, considers a second order expansion of Lame’s coefficients and a hierarchic representation that adapts to the variation of solutions. Its functional d.o.f. are the traditional mid-plane displacements and the shear rotations, so refinement implies no increase of the number of functional d.o.f. Sandwich shells are represented as multilayered shells made of layers with different thickness and material properties, the core being treated as a thick intermediate layer