Recent results on the effect of the transverse core compressibility on the static and dynamic response of sandwich structures

Abstract

This paper is devoted to a study of the effects played by transverse core compressibility of sandwich plates and shells on their static and dynamic behavior. The analysis is based on a higher-order structural model using the standard Kirchhoff–Love assumption for the face sheets and a higher order displacement representation for the core layer. The model accounts for the geometrical nonlinearities that are considered in the von Kármán sense and for initial geometric imperfections. Transverse shear effects are included in the soft-core layer. Consistent equations of motion and boundary conditions are derived via the application of Hamilton’s principle. In the cases that are analyzed and presented in this paper, it was revealed that the static and dynamic buckling/response and postbuckling of flat and curved sandwich structures, are strongly affected by transverse compressibility of the core. It is also shown that in the context of this structural model, the wrinkling instability and response are captured directly from the derived governing equations, and not, as customarily, via a post-processing analysis.