Effective Mechanical Behavior of Sandwich Beams under Uncoupled Bending and Torsion Loadings

Abstract

Sandwich geometries, mainly panels and beams are widely used in several transportation industries, namely aerospace, aeronautic and automotive. Sandwich geometries are known for their advantages in structural applications: high specific stiffness, low weight, and possibility of design optimization prior to manufacturing. This study aims to know the influence of the number of reinforcements (ribs), and of the thickness on the mechanical behavior of sandwich panels subjected to bending and torsion loads separately. In this study, 3 geometries are compared: simple web-core beam, corrugated core, and honeycomb core. The last 2 are asymmetric, due to the use of odd number of ribs. The influence of the geometry on the results is discussed, by means of a parameter that establishes a relation between the stiffness behavior and the mass of the object. It is shown that the all relations are non-linear, despite the elastic nature of the analysis, by means of the application of loads with low intensity.