This research is motivated by the increase use of composite sandwich structures in a wide range of industries such as automotive, aerospace and civil infrastructure. To maximise stiffness at minimum weight, the paper develops a minimum weight optimization method for sandwich structure under combined torsion and bending loads. We first extend the minimum-weight design of sandwich structures under bending load to the case of torsional deformation and then present optimum solutions for the combined requirements of both bending and torsional stiffness. Three design cases are identified for a sandwich structure required to meet multiple design constraints of torsion and bending stiffness. The optimum solutions for all three cases are derived. To illustrate the newly developed optimum design solutions, numerical examples are presented for sandwich structures made of either isotropic face skins or orthotropic composite face skins.

As one of the most valued structural engineering innovations developed by the composites industry, sandwich structures are now used extensively in automotive, aerospace and civil infrastructure due to the main advantage of lightweight. This paper develops a minimum weight optimization method for sandwich structure subjected to torsion load. The design process are identified for a sandwich structure required to meet the design constraint of torsion stiffness. The optimum solutions show that at optimum design the core weight accounts for 66.7% of the whole sandwich structure. To illustrate the newly developed optimum design solutions, numerical examples are presented for sandwich structures made of either isotropic face skins or orthotropic composite face skins. Agreement between the theoretical analysis and the examples results is good.Keywords Sandwich structure . Lightweight . Torsion stiffness . Optimum design Nomenclature t f thickness of facing skins (assuming that both facing skins are same) E f elastic (Young's) modulus of facing material(assuming that both facing skins are same) l length of the sandwich plate

Pneumatic booster regulators (PBR) are in great demand in modern pneumatic systems for their energy-saving abilities. A new booster regulator with energy recovery (VBA-R) was proposed, and its energy efficiency was investigated by introducing the concept of air power. On the basis of quality-alterable gas thermodynamics, an energy efficiency assessment and pressure response model for VBA-R was proposed. First, a model was solved using MATLAB/Simulink software, and an alternative experiment was designed to verify the mathematical model and performance improvement. The results showed that the simulation was consistent with the experiment. We also can conclude that, first of all, the energy efficiency decreases with the increasing of supply pressure and flow-rate consumption; a VBA-R has the highest efficiency when its diameter ratio is closest to 1.3. Finally, a recovery chamber helped to improve the performance of the VBA-R, which included a boost ratio improvement of 15-25% and an efficiency improvement of 5-10% compared with a conventional VBA booster regulator. This research lays the foundation for optimism regarding the proposed booster regulator.

This research is motivated by the rapidly increasing use of composite sandwich structures to reduce weight and improve energy efficiency in a wide range of industries such as automotive, aerospace and civil infrastructure. The paper presents a minimumweight optimization method for sandwich structures to meet both torsion and bending rigidity requirements. This multiple inequality-constrained optimisation problem is formulated using the Lagrange multiplier method. Solving the resulting equations reveals the optimum solution that can satisfy both flexural and torsion stiffness requirements depend on the stiffness ratio relative to elastic modulus ratio. To illustrate the newly developed optimum design solutions, numerical examples are presented for sandwich structures made of either isotropic face skins or orthotropic composite face skins.

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