Analytical solutions for sandwich plates considering permeation effect by 3-D elasticity theory

In this paper, an exact analytical solution for simply supported sandwich plate which considers the permeation effect of adhesives is presented. The permeation layer is described as functionally graded material (FGM), the elastic modulus of which is assumed to be graded along the thickness following the exponential law. Based on the exact three-dimensional (3-D) elasticity theory, the solution of stresses and displacements for each layer is derived. By means of the recursive matrix method, the solution can be efficiently obtained for plates with many layers. The present solution obtained can be used as a benchmark to access other simplified solutions. The comparison study indicates that the finite element (FE) solution is close to the present one when the FGM layer in the FE model is divided into a series of homogeneous layers. However, the present method is more efficient than the FE method, with which the mesh division and computation are time-consuming. Moreover, the solution based on Kirchhoff-Love plate theory is greatly different from the present solution for thick plates. The influence of the thickness of the permeation layer on the stress and displacement fields of the sandwich plate is discussed in detail. It is indicated that the permeation layer can effectively relieve the discontinuity stress at the interface.