| Abstract: | Recently, the naval industry has continued to develop innovative lightweight structural concepts with the purpose of seeking alternative replacements for conventional plate–beam metallic structures in selected areas of ships. This study investigated the optimum design of metallic corrugated core sandwich panels subjected to blast loads by using a combined algorithm, the Feasible Direction Method (FDM) coupled with the Backtrack Program Method (BPM), in which the corrugation leg, corrugation angle, face sheet thickness, core thickness and corrugation pitch are selected as design variables, and the axial compression, bending and buckling constraints and the side constraints of the manufacturing limitations on the sizes are considered. A corrugated core sandwich panel model in the combatant deckhouse of a naval ship is adopted in the optimum study. The results show that the corrugation leg, corrugation angle and core thickness are most important for the core component, and that the corrugation leg and face sheet thickness are most important for the face sheet component. The significance of the design varibles is discussed in detail. Optimization results may provide a useful reference for designers. |
