The use of ANSYS to calculate the behaviour of sandwich structures

TL;DR

This paper employs ANSYS to analyze the behavior of sandwich structures using various models, studying mesh refinement, material property ratios, and introducing a Reissner method to enhance interface stress accuracy.

Contribution

It introduces a local Reissner method within ANSYS to improve interface stress calculations in sandwich structures with high Young's modulus ratios.

Findings

Mesh refinement affects displacement and stress accuracy.

The ratio of Young's moduli influences stress distribution.

Reissner method improves interface stress predictions.

Abstract

In this article, we use different models to compute displacements and stresses of a simply supported sandwich beam subjected to a uniform pressure. 8-node quadrilateral elements (Plane 82), multi-layered 8-node quadrilateral shell elements (Shell 91) and multi-layered 20-node cubic elements (Solid 46) are used. The influence of mesh refinement and of the ratio of Young's moduli of the layers are studied. Finally, a local Reissner method is presented and assessed, which permits an improvement in the accuracy of interface stresses for a high ratio of Young's moduli of the layers with Plane 82 elements.