Structural modeling of sandwich structures with lightweight cellular cores

An effective single layered finite element(FE)computational model is proposed to predict the structuralbehavior of lightweight sandwich panels having two dimen-sional(2D)prismatic or three dimensional(3D)truss cores.Three different types of cellular core topology are consi-dered:pyramidal truss core(3D),Kagome truss core(3D)and corrugated core(2D),representing three kinds of mate-rial anisotropy:orthotropic,monoclinic and general anisotro-pic.A homogenization technique is developed to obtain thehomogenized macroscopic stiffness properties of the cellularcore.In comparison with the results obtained by using detai-led FE model,the single layered computational model cangive acceptable predictions for both the static and dynamic behaviors of orthotropic truss core sandwich panels.Howe-ver,for non-orthotropic 3D truss cores,the predictions arenot so well.For both static and dynamic behaviors of a 2Dcorrugated core sandwich panel,the predictions derived bythe single layered computational model is generally accep-table when the size of the unit cell varies within a certainrange,with the predictions for moderately strong or strongcorrugated cores more accurate than those for weak cores.