Development of an analytical framework for viscoelastic corrugated-core sandwich plates and validation against FEM

In this study, an analytical procedure for the bending problem of a viscoelastic sandwich plate with a corrugated core is presented. Reissner–Mindlin plate theory and N-termed Prony series are employed to define the elastic and time-dependent contributions of the governing equations, respectively. Three different corrugation patterns, i.e., rectangular, trapezoidal, and triangular, are examined. Moreover, the structure is analyzed under both simply support and clamp boundary conditions. The calibrated material parameters of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) for the Generalized Maxwell rheological model are employed to show the viscoelastic response of the structure. A 3D finite element simulation of the problem is also conducted to confirm the accuracy of the analytical formulation. The two well-known creep and stress relaxation phenomena of the viscoelastic materials are examined for the mentioned corrugation cores and both boundary conditions analytically and numerically. The time-dependent dimensionless deflection and resultant von Mises stress distributions are provided. Besides, the variation of the results with various rise-times and applied load are studied in detail. The von Mises stress contours of the upper surface of the structure at the end of the creep test are also presented. The finite element method outcomes verify the analytical results with excellent compatibility. The proposed analytical procedure can be used as an efficient tool to study the effects of various parameters such as material, geometrical constants, and corrugation pattern on bending of viscoelastic sandwich plates with corrugated core problems for design and optimization, which involves a high number of simulations.