Aeroelastic analysis of foam-filled composite corrugated sandwich plates using a higher-order layerwise model

Due to the versatility of load bearing and heat insulation, foam-filled composite corrugated sandwich plates have a broad application in aerospace industry as thermal insulation structures for hypersonic vehicles. In this paper, a C⁰ higher-order layerwise finite element model is presented for aeroelastic analysis of foam-filled composite corrugated sandwich plates in supersonic flow with equivalent properties. The homogenization method for the foam-filled corrugated core is formulated by force and energy equivalence under different assumptions of force or moment distributions. In the proposed layerwise model, the composite sandwich plate is divided into three sections through thickness, while a higher-order displacement field is assumed for the single-layer orthotropic core section and a first-order displacement field for the two face-sheet sections made of multi-layer laminates. The effect of transverse normal strain is also taken into consideration. The unsteady aerodynamic pressure is evaluated by the first-order Piston theory. An eight-noded isoparametric element with 16 degrees of freedom per node is used for finite element method. The accuracy of the present model is verified with existing results in the literature. The influence of geometric parameters and material properties on critical dynamic pressure are discussed.