Bending behavior of graded corrugated truss core composite sandwich beams

This study presented a new method for forming the graded corrugated truss core sandwich structures based on an auto-cutting and mould-press process. The bending stiffness, strength and failure mechanism were investigated. Analytical models were presented to estimate the performance and failure mode of the sandwich beams. In order to demonstrate sensitivity of geometric parameters on the bending behavior of the truss core sandwich beams, a uniform and two kinds of graded corrugated truss core sandwich panels were fabricated and tested to probe different failure modes. Results showed that the distributions of the truss cores have strong influences on the bending behaviors of the sandwich beams. The predicting results were also compared with the measurements investigated. In general, the measured failure loads showed good agreement with the analytical predictions, except the uniform truss core sandwich beam. The graded corrugated truss core sandwich structures investigated appear to be promising candidates for lightweight systems and multifunctional applications. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.