Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering (2022) 44:183

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40430-022-03492-0

TECHNICAL PAPER

Flexural response of fiber‑metal laminate face‑sheet/corrugated core

sandwich beams
N. Bahrami‑Novin1 · M. Shaban1   · H. Mazaheri1

Received: 16 October 2021 / Accepted: 24 March 2022 / Published online: 12 April 2022
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to The Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering 2022

Abstract
The purpose of this study is to determine the flexural response of corrugated Fiber-Metal Laminates (FMLs) through experi-
mental tests and structural optimization of FML sandwich panels with corrugated cores. In-plane tensile tests are performed
on the constituent layers, made of E-glass woven fiber and aluminum 3105 for both flat and corrugated specimens. Moreover,
the novel corrugated FMLs were manufactured and put through the tensile test and the force–displacement curve was divided
into three phases and discussed. A three-point bending test is used to evaluate out-of-plane shear modulus of sandwich
panels with the corrugated core. After that, finite element analysis is used to simulate the tests of corrugated samples. The
numerical force–displacement curve is derived from numerical analysis and verified by experimental results. To optimize
the geometrical and material parameters of corrugated FML, equivalent properties are derived analytically by developing
a code that is validated by numerical and experimental results. A multi-objective optimization problem is implemented by
formulating two objective structural functions in addition to mass. Also, the relevant constraints were introduced to specify
the solution space. Finally, the compromise point is then estimated using the LINMAP method.
Graphical abstract

Keywords  Fiber metal laminates · Flexural response · Corrugated sandwich panels · Multi-objective optimization

Technical Editor: João Marciano Laredo dos Reis.

1 Introduction
* M. Shaban
m.shaban@basu.ac.ir Fiber-Metal Laminates (FMLs) are one type of hybrid
1
Mechanical Engineering Department, Bu-Ali Sina composite material that consists of thin metal and fiber-
University, Hamadan, Iran reinforced layers. FMLs offer special properties due to

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combining both metal and composite material at the same
time and are used widely in industrial applications.
Some exceptional properties such as high flame resist-
ance, excellent impact resistance, stiffness to weight ratio,
and fatigue damage tolerance make them preferable in mod-
ern industries such as aerospace, automobile, medical, and
electronics. Numerous investigations have been carried out
on the mechanical behavior of FMLs. To mention a few, in
the work of Khalili et al. [1], FML samples with various lay-
ups of glass fiber/epoxy laminates and steel and/or aluminum
sheets were experimentally tested and their mechanical char-
acteristics were compared. It was shown that using steel in
addition to aluminum as a metal layer in FMLs leads to an
increase in energy absorption, stiffness, and displacement.
Botelho et al. [2] evaluated the influence of hygrothermal
conditioning on elastic tensile and compression properties
for glass fiber/epoxy and Glare laminates. Iaccarino et al.
[3] modified classical lamination theory to account for the
inelastic behavior of aluminum in FMLs and compared their
stress–strain results with experimental tests. Reyes and Kang
[4] investigated the mechanical behavior of FML under ten-
sile and fatigue loading conditions. They utilized a thermo-
plastic FML which was made of polypropylene and glass
fiber-reinforced composite with an aluminum layer. Accord-
ing to the results of the experiments, the considered FML
has excellent forming properties. Cepeda-Jiménez et al. [5]
used various constituent models to investigate damage tol-
erance and fracture mechanisms of glass fiber reinforced
laminate (GLARE). They employed three-point bending and
shear tests to demonstrate that the activated fracture mecha-
nisms are dependent on the constituent materials and their
interfaces. Carrillo and Cantwell [6] studied scaling effects
in FMLs with a thermoplastic matrix. In another work [7],
they experimentally investigated the mechanical behavior
of described FMLs and found that fiber orientation has no
primary effect on the flexural behavior of FMLs.
On the other hand, sandwich structures are multilayered
composites that play an important role in modern engineer-
ing applications. Novel core designs, such as corrugated,
tetrahedral truss, and auxetic, are used as an alternative to
traditional cores to provide superior properties and applica-
tions. Corrugated sandwich panels are one subdivision of
these novel cores that exhibit high bending stiffness, energy
absorption, and stiffness to weight ratio along with severe
anisotropic behavior. There are some papers dedicated to
the mechanical behavior of corrugated sandwich panels by
implementing experiments, numerical and analytical meth-
ods. Wang [8] examined the compressive behavior of cor-
rugated sandwich panels and showed that energy absorption
increased by increasing relative density. The effect of fiber
orientation on the tensile behavior of FMLs containing glass
fibers and Kevlar fibers has been studied by Moussavi-Tor-
shizi et al. [9]. They divided the stress–strain curve of FML
13
into two parts: (linear and nonlinear) and utilized classical
laminate theory to predict the Young’s modulus of FMLs. In
their review article, Sinmazçelik et al. [10] provided growth
development, advantages, and disadvantages, processing,
and applications of FMLs. They also compared different
surface treatment methods of FML specimens. Low-velocity
impact behavior of FMLs examined by Sadighi et al. [11].
They used magnesium sheets in FMLs in addition to Glare
laminates. They showed that for numerical simulation, the
appropriate selection of elements has a more significant
role than the failure criterion in predicting drop weight test
results. Bartolozzi and his coworkers [12] calculated equiva-
lent orthotropic properties for sinusoidal corrugated cores
based on Castigliano’s theorem and compared their solu-
tions with finite element results. They also extended their
formulations for unsymmetric geometries [13] and made an
experimental comparison to show the validity of predicted
properties [14]. Vasumathi and Murali [15] showed that
by increasing the thickness of CARAL (carbon reinforced
aluminum) the bending properties experienced a dimin-
ish. Ye et al. [16] used the variational asymptotic method
to derive an equivalent plate model for corrugated cores.
They determined equivalent properties for two shapes of
corrugations namely sinusoidal and exponential–sinusoi-
dal shape. In the work done by Sathyaseelan et al. [17] the
mechanical behavior of CARAL under tensile, flexural, and
impact loads is investigated. They implemented a finite ele-
ment approach by using ANSYS software and compared
their results with experimental results. Their obtained FE
results show a deviation of 8.6% and 10.7% from tensile
and flexural tests, respectively. Mohammadi et al. [18] pre-
sented analytical equivalent formulations for a corrugated
trapezoidal core. They carried out parametric studies and
showed that both elastic and shear modulus increased by
increasing the thickness.
Kheirikhah [19] used a high-order sandwich plate theory
to analyze three-layer sandwich panels. They implemented
multi-objective optimization for different optimization
problems including weight/deflection and weight/buckling
load optimization. They revealed that in both optimization
cases, there is no substantial difference between the optimal
solution of unidirectional and cross-ply sandwich plates.
Zheng and Qiu [20] determined the critical buckling load
of composite corrugated plates by using plate and shell
theory. They utilized the strain energy method to determine
flexural-twist coupling stiffness for an equivalent anisotropic
flat plate.
Shaban and Alibeigloo [21] extended the previous studies
and determined out-of-plane properties of corrugated cores.
They determined the exact solution for stress and displace-
ment fields by using the state-space method. Bieniaś et al.
[22] compared the impact behavior and damage characteri-
zation of carbon fiber reinforced aluminum hybrid laminates
Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering (2022) 44:183 Page 3 of 14  183
with traditional carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) at
low-velocity and low-energy impacts. Park et al. [23] used
the plate energy method to determine the extensional, bend-
ing, and shear stiffness of the corrugated core. In the works
done by Boorle and Mallick [24, 25] effects of web angle,
thickness, and laminate arrangement (cross-ply, angle ply)
on the bending of sandwich panel with corrugated inclined
web are investigated. It was shown that by constraining the
mass, the transverse deflection depends on the web incli-
nation angle and laminate arrangement. Paczos et al. [26]
obtained experimental results of three-point bending of
orthotropic sandwich beams made of five layers: two steel
facings and a core consists of two corrugated layers, and
then compared them to numerical model and theoretical
results for the number of geometrical parameters. Kashfi
et al. [27] developed a new overall damage model to estimate
the damage of FML made of two aluminum and one layer
of glass-fiber-reinforced epoxy. Based on Voce constitutive
relation, they determined the relevant coefficients and exam-
ined their model by experimental results.
Based on Hamilton's principle, Magnucka-Blandzi et al.
[28] derived equations of motion to investigate buckling
and vibrations of metal sandwich beams with trapezoidal
corrugated cores. They compared the results with numeri-
cal solutions. In another study, Magnucka-Blandzi et al.
[29] investigated the stability and vibrations of a new type
of metal multi-layered plate made of trapezoidal corrugated
cores and four inner and outer flat sheets. They also pro-
posed a finite element model to validate the results of the
analytical solution.
In the work done by Du et al. [30], the bending behavior
of a curved corrugated sandwich beam made of thermoplas-
tic glass fiber composite is studied. They presented analyti-
cal formulation for failure modes including face sheet buck-
ling/crushing, core buckling/crushing, and core debonding.
Zhuang et al. [31] proposed an analytical model for a
trapezoidal corrugated-core sandwich panel for modal and
aeroelastic analysis. They utilized the homogenization tech-
nique and layer wise theory to propose analytical formu-
lation for the design of the trapezoidal sandwich panel in
airplane application. The collapse of hierarchical corrugated
sandwich plates at different impact velocities has been stud-
ied by Zhang et al. [32]. They showed that an analytical
model can be used to determine average reaction forces and
provided collapse mechanism maps for them. The crushing
behavior of a hybrid metal-composite conical tube under
dynamic loading was investigated by Shiravand and Asgari
[33]. An effective analytical solution for FML tubes with any
number of metal and laminated composite layers has been
designed and validated by experimental tests. Taghizadeh
et al. [34] explored the energy absorption characteristics of
proposed composite sandwich panels with various corru-
gated core shapes under quasi-static out of plane loading
through experiments. Three different quasi-static compres-
sion loading conditions, including concentrated, linear, and
planar, were applied to the specimens. In the work done
by Kheirikhah and Babaghasabha [35], sandwich plates
with sinusoidal and trapezoidal corrugation are considered.
Based on the FE method, they determined buckling forces
and bending deflection of sandwich panels and compared
their results with flat sandwich plates. They showed that
the corrugation on both face sheets significantly improves
the linear uniaxial buckling capability of sandwich plates.
Nikoomanesh and Goudarzi [36] explored the ultimate shear
loading capacity of sinusoidal corrugated web beams experi-
mentally and numerically and proposed an analytical for-
mula for the inelastic shear capacity of these beams. Kavitha
et al. [37] studied formability parameters of FMLs in the
process of deep drawing and concluded that FMLs have the
best performance for component productions.
Daliri and Zeinedini [38] studied the bending behavior
of a bi-directional sinusoidal corrugated core made from
E-glass woven composite. They carried out three-point
bending tests to determine load–displacement results for
both uni and bi-directional corrugated core and made a
comparison study between them. Saadatfard et al. [39] used
a three-dimensional FE model to simulate hydromechani-
cal drawing of FML sheets. They assumed that no slip was
produced by aluminum sheets and glass fiber as well as poly-
mer resin and showed good agreement between FE results
and experiments. Jiang et al. [40] utilized a horizontal stiff-
ener to enhance the flexural resistance of sandwich panels
with composite corrugated cores. They showed that using
stiffener increased the specific energy-absorption. Based
on Euler–Bernoulli, Kumar et al. [41] proposed an itera-
tive method to consider geometric nonlinearity. They used
the method for different boundary conditions to calculate
the deflection of corrugated sheets. Shaban and Alibeigloo
[42] considered corrugated sandwich panels with embedded
piezo-electric layers as sensors and actuators and derived
exact solutions for its bending behavior. They validated the
results with FE and previous ones.
To the best of the researchers’ knowledge, there is no
study carried out so far in the literature into corrugated
FMLs. Therefore, as a first endeavor, the bending behavior
of sandwich panels with corrugated FMLs is investigated in
the present study. First, the material properties of FML com-
ponents are determined by conducting tensile tests on the
flat specimen. Then, tensile reaction force and three-point
bending responses were carried out according to ASTM
D3039 and D7250 test procedures. Considering the elasto-
plastic behavior of aluminum, finite element results of corru-
gated specimens in ABAQUS are validated by experiments.
Besides, the three-point bending test is simulated numeri-
cally by which the shear modulus of the core is determined
and then verified by experimental results. In the next step,
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the structural properties of corrugated FMLs are optimized 400

T1
by considering a multi-objective optimization problem. To

Longitudinal Stress [MPa]

T2
this end, three objectives that are tensional stiffness, flexural 300 T3
stiffness, and weight are formulated analytically. Based on T4

the genetic algorithm, the Pareto fronts are determined and 200
the LINMAP decision-making method is finally applied to
find the optimum point. 100

0
2 Experimental procedure 0 0.005 0.01
Strain
0.015 0.02 0.025

2.1 Material properties
Fig. 1  Stress–strain curves for flat composite layers subjected to ten-
sile loading in 0° direction
Three main materials are used to make FMLs that are fiber,
resin, and metal. In this study, an aluminum alloy-3105 sheet
with 0.8 mm thickness is used for the metal layer. E-glass 300
V1
woven fiber with a surface density of 200 g/cm2 supplied by V2
250

Transverse Stress [MPa]

AMP Composites Co., Ltd was used for the fiber layer. More V3
than that, Araldite LY 5052 epoxy resin and Aradur 5052 200
hardener made by the Huntsman company are used to fab-
150
ricate composite layers. According to company instruction,
the ratio of resin and hardener is 100:38. A tensile test is 100
carried out for composite and metal layers separately using 50
a SANTAM testing machine with a load cell of 1.5 kN. It
is worthy to mention that during tensile tests, the strain of 0
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025
each specimen was recorded using a clip-on extensometer Strain
in addition to a crosshead.
For the aluminum sheet, dog-bone tensile specimens were Fig. 2  Stress–strain curves for flat composite layers subjected to ten-
cut from the sheet according to ASTM E8 standard in both sile loading in 90° direction
rolling and transverse directions and tested at a 1 mm/min
crosshead speed. Young’s modulus is obtained to be 60 GPa
and 59 GPa in rolling and transverse directions, respectively. 50
S1
To determine orthotropic in-plane properties of compos-
S3
ite layers, a tensile test is then carried out in both 0 and 40
S2
90 directions for at least three specimens. For each speci-
45° Stress [MPa]

men, five laminae are stacked in the desired direction by 30

using the hand lay-up method, and then fabricated speci-
mens are subjected to controlled pressure to press the lay- 20

ers and remove the redundant resin. Specimen dimensions

are 25 cm in length and 2.5 cm in width consistent with 10

ASTM D3039. Figures 1 and 2 show the stress–strain curve

for composites along 0° and 90°, respectively. Furthermore, 0
0 0.001 0.002 0.003 0.004 0.005
three other 5-layer specimens with the same dimension were Shear Strain
fabricated to load along 45° for determining in-plane shear
modulus following ASTM D3518. Figure 3 illustrates the Fig. 3  Stress–strain curves for flat composite layers subjected to ten-
stress–strain curve for composite along 45°. sile loading in 45° direction
The in-plane shear modulus of composite, G 12, can be
calculated using the following equation:

1 4 1 1 2𝜐 Table 1  Elastic properties of E-glass/epoxy laminated composite

= − − + 12 (1)
G12 E45 E11 E22 E11 E11 (GPa) E22 (GPa) G12 (GPa) ʋ12

13.78 10.57 3.176 0.1017

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Fig. 4  Stress–strain curves for 2.5E+08

flat FMLs subjected to tensile S1
loading in 0° direction S2
2.0E+08
S3

1.5E+08

Stress [MPa]
1.0E+08

5.0E+07

0.0E+00
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02
Strain
(a)

(b) (c)

where E45 is the curve slope determined in 45° direction

loading. In Table 1 Elastic properties of E-glass/epoxy lami-
nated composite are presented.
To produce flat FMLs, specimens were prepared accord-
ing to the ASTM D2651 instructions.
At the first stage, the surfaces of the aluminum layer
were polished and degreased by acetone and pre-treated to
enhance adhesive bonding between the metallic layer and
composite laminate. Then following the laying-up proce-
dure, the E-glass layer was impregnated with epoxy resin
and placed on the top and bottom surface of the aluminum.
It is noteworthy to mention that FML samples have ten sub-
layer glass fiber (aluminum sandwiched between five lay-
ers of glass). Tensile tests were performed on three speci-
mens using the SANTAM STM-150 machine, keeping the
crosshead speed of 3 mm/min and the room temperature.
The stress–strain curve of the three specimens is shown in
Fig. 4a. Figure 4b–c depicts prepared specimens before test-
ing and after fracture, respectively.
According to Fig. 4a, linear behavior can be observed
for strain lower than about 0.01. After that, it is seen that
rupture of fiber layers begins and has continued until com-
plete separation occurs. At this level, the metal layer bears
the applied displacement lonely. It is worthy to mention
that in the current study only elastic behavior of FMLs is
Fig. 5  Fabricated trapezoidal corrugated aluminum specimen
investigated and optimized, thus nonlinear behavior is not
concerned in this study.
2.2 Manufacturing process
The manufacturing procedure of corrugated FMLs was
described in this section. First of all, the flatwise alu-
minum sheet are sliced with dimensions of 300 × 25 mm.
Then sheet metal folding devices are utilized to fold the
cut-up sheets and produce the mid-layer of trapezoidal
corrugated FML. The folding device used in this study
can provide a folded length of more than 10 mm. Figure 5
shows the trapezoidal corrugated aluminum specimen that
has folded with a length of 10 mm and an angle of 45°.
The trapezoidal corrugated aluminum specimens were
pretreated in line with the ASTM D2651 standard. Then
five glass layers on one side of the corrugated aluminum are

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seen. Due to the bending effect, in the first phase, a small

deflection of horizontal parts that are out of the center-
line is observed. In the following phase, delamination is
formed especially in the corners of corrugated samples. In
the corners, stress concentrations are anticipated because
of sudden geometry change and these corners acted like a
Fig. 6  Support features used for fabrication of corrugated FMLs alu- plastic joint.
minum specimen
In the final phase, all the inclined members turned hori-
zontal, so the specimen behaved like a smooth one, and a
laid up. It is worth mentioning that the specimen in this stage notable increase in the force is observed. Therefore, a rup-
cannot directly be subjected to pressure due to the possibil- ture in composite layers is observed and a drop in the fig-
ity of metal layer deformation. To overcome this problem, ure is recorded. Later, the final failure at the metal layer is
trapezoidal support features made from wood are provided taken place. The failure of tensile-loaded corrugated FMLs
and placed in the bottom gaps of the specimen (Fig. 6). After is shown in Fig. 11.
curing, the specimen was returned and five more composite
layers were laid on the other side. It should be noted that a
controlled pressure is applied to the specimen rested on an
array of support features.
Two flat FMLs were incorporated as facing to fabricate
FML sandwich panels. The material and configuration of
all components of sandwich panels were similar. In Fig. 7
dimensions of the fully FML sandwich panel are presented.
Also, In Fig. 8 the corrugated FMLs and built sandwich
panels are presented.

3 Mechanical testing

3.1 Tensile tests on the corrugated specimens (a)

The corrugated aluminum specimens were exposed to

a standard tensile test and deflections are measured. The
experiments were conducted at a 3 mm/min crosshead dis-
placement rate. The load versus displacement response is
presented in Fig. 9. As shown in this figure, at first linear
behavior can be observed. Next, all the inclined members
turned horizontal so the specimen became flat and a notable
increase in the force is observed. Finally, the specimen rup-
tured in 53.5 mm displacement.
(b)
The load versus displacement response is presented
in Fig. 10 for three specimens corrugated FMLs. Three
Fig. 8  Photograph of a corrugated FML cores b FML sandwich pan-
different phases were evident in this diagram. In the first els
two phases, linear behavior with different slopes can be

Fig. 7  Dimensions of fabricated
FML sandwich panel

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Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering (2022) 44:183 Page 7 of 14  183

4000
Corrugated Al
FE Simulation
3000
Force [N]

2000

1000

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Displacement [mm]

Fig. 9  Load–displacement response of corrugated aluminum sub-

jected to tensile loading

(a)
5000
S1
S2 Phase 3
4000
S3 Phase 2
Phase 1
Force [N]

3000

2000

1000

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Displacement [mm]

Fig. 10  Load–displacement curves for three corrugated FMLs sub- (b)

jected to tensile loading
Fig. 11  Failure of corrugated FMLs subjected to tensile load

3.2 Flexural tests on the corrugated FML specimens

A Three-point bending test is conducted to sandwich panels
with a corrugated core following ASTM D7250. Accord-
ing to the standard, the speed of testing should be adjusted
such as to produce failure within 3 to 6 min, thus the strain
rate is adjusted to 6 mm/min. The support span of the FML
flexural samples is 150 mm. Meanwhile, displacement refers
to the movement of the movable rod in the center of the
specimen. As expected, due to manufacturing errors and
utilizing the hand lay-up method, separation of the upper
facing that is under compression, from the core in all the
three specimens did not occur simultaneously, so a slight
difference in the maximum tolerated force by the specimens
is seen. Figure 12 shows the force–displacement curve of all
three sandwich panels in the linear region and the failure of
a sandwich panel under bending.
According to ASTM D7250, flexural stiffness (D), trans-
verse shear rigidity (U) are calculated. The average core
shear modulus ­(Gxz) is 326.1 GPa.
4 Numerical modeling of corrugated
sandwich panel
4.1 Numerical modeling of tensile test
The commercial code ABAQUS is used to perform finite
element analysis (FEA) of corrugated sandwich panels. A
four-node shell element with six degrees of freedom and
reduced integration (S4R) is implemented in the FE simula-
tion. Also, since the determined Young’s modulus in rolling
and transverse direction had no notable difference, the metal
is considered as isotropic material. Mechanical properties
determined from the tensile test results are utilized for the
numerical analysis of the corrugated aluminum sample. The
tuned plastic stress–strain values are listed in Table 2.
It should be noted that mesh convergence analysis is
performed and the size of the elements is determined to
be 1.5 mm. All degrees of freedom following the experi-
mental test, in one end is constrained. In the other end,

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500 20000
b1 S1

b2 S2
400
15000 S3
b3
FE Simulation

Force [N]
300 FE Simulation
Force [N]

10000

200

5000
100

0
0 0 0.15 0.3 0.45 0.6 0.75 0.9
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25
Displacement [mm]
Displacement [mm]
(a)
Fig. 13  Comparison of FE load–displacement curve with experimen-
tal results for flat FML samples

Table 3  Comparison of the numerical and experimental results of the

FML in flat tensile test
Experimental Numerical Error (%)

E (GPa) 31.2 29.6 5.41

(b)
150
S1
Fig. 12  a Load–displacement response of sandwich panels in the lin-
ear region b Failure of a sandwich panel under bending S2
120
S3

FE Simualon
Table 2  Plastic-strain and 90
Force [N]

Plastic strain Plastic

stress of Aluminum sheet in the stress
rolling direction (MPa) 60

0 176
0.00063158 188 30

0.00110526 194
0.00168421 199 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
0.00257897 197 Displacement [mm]
0.00352631 197
0.00489474 197
Fig. 14  Comparison of FE load–displacement curve with experimen-
0.00605263 195 tal results for corrugated FML cores
0.00742102 194
0.00900002 192
0.01021051 189 according to Table  2. The reaction force versus dis-
0.01168422 184 placement is derived and plotted in Fig. 9 and excellent
0.01284212 177 agreement can be observed between FE simulation and
0.01373682 171 experiments.
0.01484212 159 Before modeling corrugated FML, laminate ply stack
0.01531582 148 is employed to the flat specimen in ABAQUS and the
force–displacement curve is compared with experimen-
tal results. Meanwhile, the amount of displacement in the
modeling is equal to the displacement shown in the exten-
the nodes are coupled to a reference point and longitu- someter used in the experimental test. Dynamic/explicit
dinal displacement is applied to it. Both the elastic and solver of ABAQUS was used to precisely simulate the
plastic material properties of Al is submitted to software

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Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering (2022) 44:183 Page 9 of 14  183

Fig. 15  Finite element model of

three-point bending test

Table 4  Comparison of the numerical and experimental results of the Table 5  Comparison between numerical and experimental results of
FML corrugated tension shear modulus of core
Experimental Numerical Error (%) Experimental Numerical Error (%)
Ex (MPa) 444.58 429.24 3.57 Gxz (MPa) 326.1 289.98 11.07

response of the tensile test. Figure 13 shows the compari-

son of the FE load–displacement curve with experiments 5 Optimization problem
for the flat FML specimen. Good agreement between the
results is evident. In Table 3, Young’s modulus of numeri- In this section, multi-objective optimization is implemented
cal and experiments are provided. It is observed that there to improve the structural performance of sandwich panels
is good agreement between the obtained results (Fig. 14). with corrugated FML cores.
To compare the simulation and experimental results of
the tensile test on corrugated specimens, the force–dis- 5.1 Geometrical and manufacturing constraints
placement curve obtained from both methods is presented
and compared in Fig. 14. The elasticity modulus of both Geometrical independent design parameters that are
methods is compared in Table 4. As can be seen, the error included in the optimization process are the number of cor-
of numerical simulation is less than 4%, thus an acceptable rugations, n, half-height, f, and inclination angle, θ. Another
adaptation to the experimental results in the first phase is important parameter used to optimize corrugated FMLs is
observed. the number of composite layers, m. Also, the number of
corrugations and composite layers were assumed to be an
4.2 Numerical modeling of flexural test integer. To determine the equal elastic modulus of flat FML
the following relation is used:
Figure 15 shows the finite element model of the three- 𝜎x ( ) −1
E= ◦ = Nx ∕ttotal ∕A11 Nx (2)
point bending test. In flexural test simulation, in addi- 𝜀x
tion to S4R shell elements, the R3D3 and R3D4 ele-
ments are used for rigid rods as bottom supports and n [
the movable crosshead. Some details are implemented
∑ ](
(3)
)
Aij = Qij tk − tk−1 , i = 1, 2, 6;j = 1, 2, 6
in the simulated model to achieve more similarity to the k=1
k

experimental test. As shown in Fig. 15b a suitable offset

is considered for the layers so that a model similar to
the sample is constructed. Two lower supports are fixed
while displacement boundary condition is defined for
the upper one following the experimental test. Figure 12
illustrates the FE force–displacement curve of the center
of the panel in the three-point bending test. According to
ASTM D7250, the core shear modulus is calculated and
proposed in Table 5.
Nx is the resultant force per unit length in the x-direction,
Aij is the Extensional stiffness matrix and Qij represents the
Transformed reduced stiffness. Due to practical applications,
the lower and upper bounds of the design variables are con-
sidered as follow:
5 ≤ f (mm) ≤ 16
2 ≤ n ≤ 15
(4)
30 ≤ 𝜃(Deg) ≤ 70
1 ≤ m ≤ 15
The considered allowable steps of design variables are 5
and 0.5 for inclination angle height, respectively. Accord-
ing to the actual requirements, dimensional constraints are
imposed to total length, a, and width, b such that they are

13
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Table 6  Equivalent orthotropic properties of corrugated core Table 7  Validation of the equivalent properties compared with
numerical and experimental results
Equivalent orthotropic properties Displacement and force
constraints Analytical Numerical Experimental

Ex =
H∕fb H = 1, V = 0, M0 = 0 Ex (MPa) 473.8 429.24 444.6
2𝛿H ∕c
𝛿H ≠ 0, 𝛿V ≠ 0, 𝛿𝜃M0 = 0 Gxz (MPa) 358.3 289.98 326.1

Gxz =
2H∕cb H = 1, V = 0, M0 = 0
𝛿H ∕f
𝛿H ≠ 0, 𝛿V = 0, 𝛿𝜃M0 = 0
In the above relation, ρ eq is the density of flat FML
derived as follow:
( ) ( )
𝜌Lamina × tLamina × m + 𝜌Al × tAl
𝜌eq = (10)
t_total
l is the length of corrugated core occupied the unit cell
and is calculated as follow:
( )
f c f
l= + − (11)
sin 𝜃 2 tan 𝜃

ttotal is the total thickness and is obtained as follow:

ttotal = tAl + tLamina × m (12)
The mass is set to 39.44 gr that is equal to the manu-
factured specimens. The accuracy of the mass constraint
is 0.1 g.
similar to experiment specimen (a = 265 mm, b = 25 mm)
to limit the search space. Due to the limits in the length size
of the sheet metal folding device, two unequal constraints 5.2 Optimization objective functions
related to OA and AB regions (see Table 6) are considered
the way by which the length of these areas is intended to be Three objective functions namely tensional in-plane stiff-
more than 5 mm, hence they can be expressed as: ness, flexural out-of-plane stiffness, and weight are consid-
c ered. These objective functions were calculated by using
2
− k ≥ 0.005 (5) equivalent properties. The effects of the geometric param-
eters on the equivalent mechanical properties have been
f discussed in our work [42]. The first objective function is
≥ 0.005 (6) equivalent tensional stiffness, ST, that is ExAeq. By consid-
sin 𝜃
ering plane strain condition, the equivalent elastic modulus
It should be noted that c and k are dependent parameters in the x-direction and equivalent section area is as follow:
that can be calculated by other independent parameters as
follow: H∕
fb
Ex = (13)
L 2𝛿H∕
c
c = total (7)
2n
Aeq = 2fb (14)
f
k= (8) Equivalent flexural stiffness is the second objective
tan 𝜃
function denoted by SF while representing out-of-plane
Another important constraint imposed is the mass con- deformation. The flexural stiffness of corrugated sandwich
straint. The total mass of the specimen is obtained by mul- panels should be maximized in the y-direction rather than
tiplying density to extended length as follow: the corrugation direction due to their extreme anisotropic
properties. Thus, SF is defined as EyI and is calculated as
(9)
( )
mtotal = 𝜌eq × 4 × l × n × b × ttotal
below:

13
Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering (2022) 44:183 Page 11 of 14  183

Table 8  Single-objective Objective func Opt. parameters

optimization results of objective
functions Inclination Corrugation Half-height Number of com- Optimized value
angle, degree (θ) number (n) mm (f) posite layers, (m)

ST (N) 65 6 5 14 974,915.4
SF (N.m2) 70 14 16 14 10,241.74
M (gr) 30 2 5 1 19.5

( )( )
f c f c −1
Ey = + − f ttotal .E2 (15) -8.00E+05
Pareto Front
sin 𝜃 2 tan 𝜃 2
-7.00E+05
√ -6.00E+05
ttotal (2f )2 4(2f )2 + (2c − 2d)2 ttotal d(2f ) 2 -5.00E+05
(16)

ST [N]
I= + -4.00E+05
12(2c) 2(2c)
-3.00E+05
In the above relations, d is defined as: -2.00E+05
( ) -1.00E+05
c f 0.00E+00
d=2 − (17) -2000 -4000 -6000 -8000
2 tan 𝜃
SF [N.m2]
The third objective function is the mass of the corru-
gated core that is obtained in Eq. 18. The optimal design of Fig. 16  Pareto front of tensional and flexural stiffness
the corrugated panel is achieved at the minimum amount
of mass. More details of boundary conditions for equiva-
lent properties are provided in Table 6.
Pareto Front
40
M = 𝜌eq × 4 × l × n × b × ttotal (18)
35
The validation of the proposed analytical model for the

mass [gr]
equivalent elastic modulus and shear modulus of the cor- 30
rugated core are shown in Table 7. Compared with experi-
mental results, the error of equivalent Ex and Gxz is 6.16% 25
and 8.98%.
The Genetic Algorithm method (GA) is used in MAT- 20
-1.E+06 -8.E+05 -6.E+05 -4.E+05 -2.E+05 0.E+00
LAB to solve the multi-objective optimization problem.
ST [N]
First, single-objective optimization is carried out individu-
ally for each objective function by considering a range of
Fig. 17  Pareto front of tensional stiffness and mass
design variable values. All the constrained are incorpo-
rated into the problem. Since in MATLAB, minimization
is implemented to all objective functions by default, the
negative of function is considered for those that should be
Pareto Front
maximized. The crossover probability is set as 0.8 and the 80

stochastic uniform method is used for best individuals. 70

Different population sizes are performed and it is found 60
that objective functions have no considerable sensitivity to
mass [gr]

50
this parameter and so it is set to 100. Function tolerances
for Stiffness and mass functions are ­10–3 and ­10–1, respec- 40

tively, as stopping criteria. The results of single-objective 30

optimization of objective functions are shown in Table 8.
20
As can be seen in this table, the order of ST, S F, and M -9000 -7000 -5000 -3000 -1000
objectives is 6, 5, and 2, respectively. To obtain better SF [N.m2]
performance, all the results were normalized by dividing
Fig. 18  Pareto front of flexural stiffness and mass

13
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Page 12 of 14 Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering (2022) 44:183

Table 9  LINMAP decision- Objective func Opt. parameters

making results for bi-objective
optimization θ n f m Optimized value θ

ST-SF 65 6 14 14 71,725.9 6240.5

ST-M 70 14 16 14 802,060 36.6
SF-M 30 2 5 1 222.2 19.5

Fig. 19  Pareto front for multi-objective optimization

Table 10  LINMAP decision- Objective func Opt. parameters

making results for multi-
objective optimization θ n f m Optimized value θ n

ST-SF-M 40 2 7 4 63,065 667 24.7

them by the value of single-objective optimization. For the
mass, the upper bound vector is assumed.
5.3 Multi‑objective optimization
A bi-objective optimization problem is implemented to
every two objectives to prove the trade-off relation between
them. In Fig. 16 Pareto front of tensional and flexural stiff-
ness is plotted. As presented in this figure, by increasing ST,
SF will be decreased and trade-off behavior is evident. Also,
Fig. 17 and Fig. 18 display the Pareto front of ST-M and SF-
M. According to these figures, an increase in either tensional
stiffness or flexural stiffness leads to a mutual increase in
mass.
LINMAP11  Linear Programming Technique for Multi-dimen-
sional Analysis of Preference. is one of the well-known decision-
making methods that is utilized to determine the most excel-
lent compromise point. According to this method, the results
of one-objective optimization are introduced as an ideal ref-
erence point. Then the Euclidean normalized method is used
to normalize solutions of Pareto front as below:
Fij
Fijn = �
2 ∑m � �2 (19)
i=1 Fij
where Fij is the value of the objective function in the Pareto
front. The subscript i denotes the arbitrary point which starts
from 1 to m (number of Pareto front points). Subscript j
refers to the number of objective functions that are 2 or 3
for bi-objective and multi-objective optimization. Afterward,

13
Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering (2022) 44:183 Page 13 of 14  183
it is possible to compute the distance between normalized
objective functions as below:
√
√ n (
√∑ )2
di+ = √ 2
Fij − Fjideal (20)
j=1
where Fjideal is the normalized one-objective result. There-
fore, the point with minimum distance from the reference
point is selected ( ioptimum ≡ i ∈ min(di+ ) ). In Table 9 LIN-
MAP decision-making results for bi-objective optimization
and their optimized values are tabulated.
In the final step, multi-objective optimization is car-
ried out by considering all objective functions. In Fig. 19
Pareto front for multi-objective optimization is presented. In
Table 10 LINMAP decision-making results for bi-objective
optimization gives the optimum parameters and values of
multi-objective optimization.
6 Conclusion
In this study, novel corrugated FML cores are fabricated
and used to fabricate a completely FML sandwich panels.
Such cores are experimentally carried out on a uniaxial
tensile test in the corrugation direction and load–displace-
ment results are obtained. It is found that three phases for
corrugated FMLs can be established. Furthermore, bending
tests are conducted on sandwich panels with both FML fac-
ings and core to determine the shear modulus of the panel.
The numerical results for both tensile and bending tests are
performed and obtained results are verified by experiments.
Besides, by using equivalent properties, a multi-objective
optimization problem is accomplished to increase the
structural performance of FML cores in addition to mass
reduction. The presented investigation can be used by other
researchers to design more complicated structures such as
multi-layer sandwich panels with hybrid FML and other
cores.
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