ELASTIC JOINING OF SANDWICH PANELS IN MASS TRANSPORT APPLICATIONS

摘要

The application of elastic adhesives has been proven to be a suitable joining technique for large scale components like sandwich panels. Large panels up to 15 meters in length and up to 2.5 meters in width are more and more used in the structures of mass transportation systems. Hybrid structures like the Transrapid maglev train TR08, state-of-the-art low floor tramway body shells or superstructures of cruise ships have been successfully designed to fulfill stringent structural criteria. The paper shows how the sandwich panels are designed to provide a suitable zone for the bonding layer as well as for the load introduction. Edge stiffeners are carefully prepared to enable a smooth load introduction into the sandwich shell. Furthermore, design limits are outlined for the adhesive layer. The structural analysis of the edge zone based on nonlinear finite element methods is discussed. The modeling technique suitable to capture the nonlinear behavior of the adhesive layer is explained. Benchmark results with different modeling techniques are presented. Several case studies of mass transportation applications show the applicability of the design methodology presented.