A Review on Design and Analysis of Stainless Steel Sandwich Structure

The demand for bigger, faster and lighter moving vehicles, such as ships, trains, trucks and buses has increased the importance of efficient structural arrangements. In principle two approaches exist to develop efficient structures: either application of new materials or the use of new structural design. A proven and well-established solution is the use of composite materials and sandwich structures. In this way high strength to weight ratio and minimum weight can be obtained. The sandwich structures have potential to offer a wide range of attractive design solutions. In addition to the obtained weight reduction, these solutions can often bring space savings, fire resistance, noise control and improved heating and cooling performance. Laser-welded metallic sandwich panels offer a number of outstanding properties allowing the designer to develop light and efficient structural configurations for a large variety of applications. These panels have been under active investigations during the last 15 years in the world. Outokumpu has been participating in several collaborative projects in this area. In Finland the research related to all steel sandwich panels was initiated in 1988 in the Ship Laboratory of Helsinki University of Technology.