Strength and stiffness of sandwich beams in bending

This investigation is concerned with the experimental versus analytical correlation of the mechanical properties of sandwich-beam specimens. Such sandwich structures are commonly employed in the aircraft industry. Four-point and three-point load tests were conducted on a large number of sandwich-beam specimens, fabricated by using fiber-glass reinforced plastics (both unidirectional and woven-glass cloth) and DTD 685 aluminum alloy for the facings with aluminum honeycomb core and polyurethane foam cores and the indigenously available Araldite as the bonding medium between the core and the facings. The flexural stiffness of the composite sandwich specimens used in this investigation compared favorably with theoretical predictions. The shear stiffness was found to be about 55 percent and 45 percent of the theoretically predicted values for FRP (fiberglass-reinforced-plastic) cloth and FRP unidirectional laminates with aluminum honeycomb core sandwich, respectively. The failure load as determined by experiments was less than the theoretically predicted safe load. There was a loss of strength as well as a steep decrease in the failure load in the case of low density foam core. It was concluded that FRP facing plates with aluminum honeycomb core sandwich structure may be preferred to similar aluminum-alloy facing sandwich construction if high flexural stiffness and shear stiffness properties are required at less cost and weight. Indigenously available Araldite was quite satisfactory for bonding the core to the facings. This investigation has confirmed the importance of experiments in the field of sandwich structures which can effectively replace other conventional uneconomical structural or machine members which are currently in use. © 1991 Society for Experimental Mechanics, Inc