Joints of Steel Sandwich Structures

Abstract

Steel sandwich structures are perceived as alternatives to single-skin welded structures in the shipbuilding industry due its advantages like significant reduction of mass in relation to typical single skin structure. However, beside problems with their strength properties itself, applications in real structures requires of solving the problem of joining, both for connection sandwich to sandwich as well as sandwiches to single-shell structures. Proper design of joints is connected with some factors like lack of attempt to interior of panel, introduction of additional parts and welds with completely different stiffness. In the paper the results of laboratory fatigue tests of selected joints as well as numerical calculation of stressed for different kind of joints of sandwich structures are presented. As result of calculations optimisation of geometry for selected joints is performed.