A solution including skin effect for stiffness and stress field of sandwich honeycomb core

Honeycomb sandwich panels have been increasingly used in every possible field, and their efficient load carrying capacity attributes have attracted considerable attention. All previous studies have been focused mainly on stiffness, neglecting for the most part skin effects. This paper represents an important further contribution by developing an analytical model that permits the computation of stiffnesses as well as interfacial stresses considering the skin-effect for hexagonal honeycomb sandwich, subjected to in-plane and out-of-plane forces. An explicit analytical model is derived based on equilibrium equations, where boundary conditions imposed by the skin effect are appropriately considered. The accuracy of the solution is verified through close correlations with existing stiffness formulations and finite element results. The skin effect on both stiffness and interfacial stress distribution is analytically defined. The present model is then used to carry out a parametric study on interfacial stresses, and to detect the critical sections in the structure where further consideration should be given for design purposes. The method provided in this study can be used for accurate analysis and design of sandwich structures. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.