Design and analysis of dual-constituent lattice sandwich panel with in-plane zero thermal expansion and high structural stiffness

Abstract

The lattice sandwich panel may achieve in-plane zero thermal expansion (ZTE) property through a special design of upper and lower face sheets, both of which are attached with an additional layer of patch with high coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE). This type of sandwich panels with ZTE property is highly demanded for aerospace vehicles, where often suffer from large variations of temperature. The design of curved surface for the face sheet cells is necessary to achieve in-plane ZTE attribute, however, it will also result in structural stiffness reduction significantly. In this study, a novel dual-constituent lattice sandwich panel with in-plane ZTE and high structural stiffness properties is proposed, designed and analyzed. Six different kinds of cell configurations through two types of curved surface and three different patches are compared to obtain the optimal design. A further parametric study is carried out by numerical simulations to show the influences of curved surface, patch covering form, patch shape, size and thickness on cell equivalent stiffness as well as the control effectiveness of thermal deformation. Optimal cell designs that enable the sandwich panels to achieve the in-plane ZTE and high in-plane stiffness properties are also presented. The stiffness reduction for achieving in-plane ZTE is acceptable. Sufficient residual stiffness ensures the load carrying capacity of dual-constituent lattice sandwich panels.