Elastic stiffness properties and behavior of truss-core sandwich panel

In this paper a truss-core sandwich panel is introduced and its elastic pro perties are presented. Two thin flat sheets, separated by two inclined plat es acting as the core and rigidly jointed at their ends, characterize the s andwich section. This construction form eliminates most of thr attendant pr oblems of conventional spot-welded or rivet-fastened sandwich panel constru ction. Advantages of the truss-core panel are discussed. The 3D sandwich pa nel is idealized as an equivalent 2D orthotropic thick plate continuum. Equ ivalent bending, twisting, and transverse shear stiffness are derived, and the influence of the relatively weak shear stiffness on the behavior is dis cussed. By integrating these elastic stiffness constants into closed-form s olution, panel response is calculated. The calculated results, which requir e significantly less computational effort, agree well with 3D finite-elemen t analysis. Comparisons of stiffnesses and deflections with the correspondi ng responses of conventional sandwich construction are provided. This study indicates that the truss-core sandwich panel performs better due to its in herently higher flexural resistance per unit weight.