Comparison between Stiffened Plate and Steel Aluminum Foam Sandwich Panels

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.