Optimal design of box-section sandwich beams in three-point bending

Minimum mass designs are obtained for box-section sandwich beams of various cross-sections in three-point bending. The overall compliance of the hollow, tubular beams are decomposed additively into a global contribution due to macroscopic bending (Timoshenko beam theory) and a local contribution associated with transverse deflection of the walls of the hollow beam adjacent to the central loading patch. The structural response is analysed for beams of square sections with various internal topologies: a solid section, a foam-filled tube with monolithic walls, a hollow tube with walls made from sandwich plates, and a hollow tube with walls reinforced by internal stiffeners. Finite element analysis is used to validate analytical models for the overall stiffness of the tubes in three-point bending. Minimum mass designs are obtained as a function of the overall stiffness, and the relative merits of the competing topologies are discussed.