Large deflection of rectangular sandwich tubes with metal foam core

In this paper, the plastic behavior of a clamped rectangular sandwich tube with metal foam core is studied by analytical and numerical methods. Using the yield criterion, the analytical solution for plastic behavior of a rectangular metal foam core sandwich tube under transverse loading is derived. The numerical calculation is conducted, analytical results are compared with numerical ones. Analytical and numerical results are verified by each other. Finally, the influences of the punch width, loading position, foam strength, and tube-wall thickness on large deflection of the sandwich tubes are discussed based on the analytical model. It is shown the load and plastic energy increase with the increase of punch width, the metal-foam strength and tube-wall thickness, loading position moving from the center to the sides.