Bending of curved sandwich beams

Abstract

Curved sandwich beams in bending are analyzed with analytical elasticity methods and compared to simple analytical formulae and FEM calculations. Solutions to Airy's stress function in polar co-ordinates are used to obtain the stress distributions in the radial and circumferential directions. Plane stress and plane strain solutions are given with isotropic and orthotropic material models. It is shown that the properties of the core can have a significant influence on the circumferential stresses of the faces, but that the radial stress of the core is nearly constant with varying core properties. The radius of curvature can have a large influence on the circumferential stresses of the faces when the radius of curvature to sandwich thickness ratio is small to moderate. It is shown that simple analytical methods can be utilised to calculate the radial stresses in the core and the circumferential stresses of the faces for beams with large to moderate radii of curvature and thin to moderately thick faces.