AN EFFICIENT STATIC ANALYSIS OF SANDWICH BEAMS

A simple Ritz-type procedure based on kappa-orthogonal polynomials is used to study an elementary model of a uniform, symmetric, three-layer sandwich beam in which the core is essentially a shear-carrying layer. The applicability of this method to a complete static analysis of such a beam is discussed. Approximate solutions are obtained for the transverse displacement, face-plate direct strain and core shear strain distributions for four different sandwich beams, and direct comparisons are made with some simple benchmark formulae. It is shown that for beams with a continuous distributed loading, highly accurate displacement, face-plate strain, and core shear strain results can be obtained very economically. For beams subjected to point loads (or point moments), highly accurate displacements still result; but due to the discontinuities in the face-plate strain and core shear distributions at the point of application of the load, these latter quantities are less reliably represented.