I'm looking for some help in modeling and analysis of honeycomb sandwich panels with core tapers and flange closeouts.
If I'm analyzing a rectangular sandwich panel that ramps down to a solid laminate flange on all 4 edges, should the flange be a separate component (or 4 components, 1 for each edge) that wraps around the perimeter of the panel? This was my guess, since the flange is a one-stack unstiffened concept and the panel & ramp areas are honeycomb sandwich. Should the core taper/ramp area also be a separate component that sits between the flange and the panel acreage area? When the core taper element property is set, does the core thickness on the dimensions tab represent the maximum (un-tapered) core thickness, an average thickness at the taper mid-span, or something else?
I see how to apply a honeycomb core taper direction and angle through the "element" menu in the FEM viewer, but once applied is there a way to view & verify taper direction via an arrow plot similar to element material direction or normal direction? I found the help file which describes how to set this property, but I would also be interested in a description of how to appropriately use it, and/or a usage example.
Is there a setting for a symmetric (about the sandwich midplane) ramp vs. an offset ramp? In the case of an offset ramp, does the analysis include effects due to the panel midplane and flange midplane being non-coplanar? Should the shell elements sit at the sandwich midplane, at the tool surface shared between the sandwich and ramp, or somewhere else?
Thanks,
-Mike