Behavior of the sandwich beam subjected to bending as a function of the core density

Abstract

The sandwich beam can be considered as the multi-layered structure with a symmetrical cross-section. In this paper is assumed that the structure is created by periodical repetition of a unit cell. The influence of its size on the beam's static behavior in bending was analyzed. The variation of the unit cells number affects the size of the cell, so the static analysis was performed - the flexural stiffness and the beam's deflection were determined as functions of the unit cells number. The two configurations of the sandwich beams were considered: The beam with the constant cross-section along its length and the beam with the periodically variable cross-section. The graphs of the beam's flexural stiffness and deflection variations in terms of the unit cells number were obtained. It was concluded that after a certain number of the cells, the core's density does not further influence the behavior of the sandwich beam, under the given loading conditions. The conclusion from comparison of the two configurations is that the sandwich beam with the variable cross-section behaves somewhat better than the beam with the constant cross-section. The FEM analysis has verified all the conclusions from the analytical solution about the sandwich beams behavior when subjected to bending.