Sizing Optimization of Sandwich Panels Having Prismatic Core Using Water Cycle Algorithm

Abstract

Due to possessing unique structure, sandwich panels have special characteristics which the most important is having high strength to weight ratio. Sandwich panels having diverse prismatic cores have been investigated and comparisons have been carried out for finding the best design. For this reason, the importance of optimization techniques particularly metaheuristics is understood. Water cycle algorithm (WCA), as a recently developed optimizer, is inspired from water cycle process. The optimum dimensions and the minimum weight have been calculated in order to design ultra-light weight sandwich panels. The imposed constraints in this problem are buckling load and yield stress. The obtained figures and results conclude that the diamond prismatic topology (having corrugation order of 4) is the most weight efficient among other existing designs under specific loading direction.