A Galerkin Layerwise Formulation for three-dimensional stress analysis in long sandwich plates

Abstract

A layerwise (LW) formulation based on the Galerkin method is presented to investigate the three-dimensional stress state in long sandwich plate which is subjected to tension force and pure bending moment. Based on the Galerkin method and the LW discretization approach, the equilibrium equations of elasticity for the long plate are written in the weak form and discretized through the thickness of the plate. The discretized equations are written in terms of displacement components of the numerical layers. The governing equations of the plate are solved analytically for the free edge boundary conditions. The distribution of stress state especially the 3D stress state in the vicinity of the edges of the sandwich plate which is subjected to tension and pure bending is studied. In order to increase the accuracy, the out of plane stresses are obtained by integrating the equilibrium equations of elasticity. The convergence and accuracy of the predictions are studied and various numerical results are presented for distribution of the in-plane and out of plane stresses in symmetric and un-symmetric sandwich plates.