Structural Analyses & Experimental Activities Supporting the Design of a Lightweight Rigid-Wall Mobile Shelter
Abstract
Lightweight rigid-wall shelters used in mobile military operations are constructed of sandwich panels comprised of thin face sheets and thick, ultra light core materials to minimize weight and maximize structural integrity. However, such lightweight construction comes at a cost, often impacting the design and manufacturing of critical joints connecting the sandwich panels in a box-like assembly. Furthermore, joint stiffnesses are often difficult to characterize and their finite values significantly influence panel deflections and rotations. Although mobile rigid wall shelters must be certified for several transport loading environments, this effort, combines experimental and analytical approaches at material and sub-structural levels to (l) generate accurate modeling methods, (2) validate material- and sub-structural models and (3) virtually evaluate the shelter's structural performance while minimizing costly physical testing. Material-level tests focused on the mechanics of the assembled constituents forming the sandwich panel and the benchmarking of appropriate finite elements to predict displacements, stresses and strains. The sub-structural level tests focused on loading a structurally representative shelter section to determine the joint behaviors and stiffnesses for model benchmarking purposes. Finally, a complete rigid-wall shelter model was constructed for evaluating future static and dynamic load cases as required for certification.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA505793
Entities
People
- Melvin Jee
- Paul V. Cavallaro
Organizations
- Naval Undersea Warfare Center