Design Study of Composite Sandwich Truck Tank Using a High-Order Sandwich Theory Approach

The paper presents a preliminary design study on the structural response of a boxy composite sandwich truck tank subjected to hydraulic head loading. The design study is approximate in that it considers a 2-D cross section of the composite sandwich truck tank. The design study is performed using a high-order sandwich theory formulation in which the elastic responses of the face laminates are accounted for individually, and in which the transverse flexibility of the sandwich core is included. Thus the model allows the sandwich panel thickness of the truck tank to change during deformation, and the model accounts for the existence of transverse normal stresses in the core material in the sandwich panel sections. The paper includes a presentation of the high-order formulation for the curved sandwich panel parts of the composite sandwich truck tank sections, as well as a brief description of the numerical solution of the complete set of system equations with corresponding boundary conditions. The paper is concluded with a numerical study, showing the characteristic features of the elastic response of a composite sandwich truck tank section subjected to hydraulic head loading.