This works deals with the problem of the optimum design of a sandwich plate composed of CFRP faces and Al honeycomb core. The proposed design strategy is a multi-scale numerical optimization procedure that does not make use of any simplifying assumption to find a global optimum configuration of the system. The goal of such a procedure consists in simultaneously optimizing the shape of the unit cell of the honeycomb core (meso-scale) and the geometrical as well as the material parameters of the CFRP laminated skins (meso and macro scales). To prove its effectiveness, the multi-scale optimization strategy is applied to the problem of the least-weight design of a sandwich panel subject to constraints of different nature: on the positive-definiteness of the stiffness tensor of the core, on the admissible material properties of the laminated faces, on the local buckling load of the unit cell of the core, on the global buckling load of the panel and geometrical as well as manufacturability constraints linked to the fabrication process of the honeycomb core.
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