Study of the mechanical behaviour of sandwich plates

Abstract

Sandwich materials play a vital role in many industries due to their unique combination of lightness and robustness. They offer excellent mechanical strength while reducing structural weight, which is particularly advantageous for aerospace, automotive, and building. Their use also improves energy efficiency and reduces production costs. Additionally, these materials provide good thermal and acoustic insulation properties. In the field of civil engineering, sandwich materials are increasingly used for constructing bridges and buildings, as they enable the creation of lighter structures that are more resistant to environmental stresses and dynamic loads. Building on the significance of sandwich materials, the work focuses on studying the mechanical behaviour of antisymmetric composite sandwich plates. The study is conducted using a new refined high-order shear deformation theory with four variables under mechanical loading. This novel approach offers several significant features: it incorporates shear effects in deformation calculations without the need for shear correction factors. Shear stresses vary parabolically through the sandwich plate’s thickness. Additionally, the theory satisfies the nullity condition of these shear stresses at the upper and lower surfaces of the sandwich composite plate. Numerical results obtained from this refined high-order theory are compared with those from other well-known high-order theories.In conclusion, this present refined high-order shear deformation theory is precise, validated, and recognized as effective for studying the mechanical behaviour of composite sandwich plates.