Saint-Venant’s Principle for Sandwich Structures

Abstract

A review is provided of results on Saint-Venant decay lengths for self-equilibra ted edge loads in symmetric sandwich structures. In linear elasticity, Saint-Venant’s principle is used to show that self-equilibrated loads generate local stress effects that decay away from the loaded end of a structure. For homogeneous isotropic linear elastic materials this is well-documented. Self-equilibrated loads are a class of load distributions that are statically equivalent to zero, i.e., have zero resultant force and moment. When Saint-Venant’s principle is valid, pointwise boundary conditions can be replaced by more tractable resultant conditions. Saint-Venant’s principle is also the fundamental basis for static mechanical tests of material properties. It is shown in the present paper that material inhomogeneity and anisotropy significantly affect the practical application of Saint-Venant’s principle to sandwich structures.