On displacement-based theories of sandwich plates with soft core (Q1189832)

This paper derives a family of refined static theories of an elastic sandwich plate composed of a soft core layer and two thin face layers. The two-dimensional linear theories of sandwich plate are derived by using the three-dimensional variational equation of virtual work together with an a priori assumed stress-displacement hypotheses. The hypotheses impose certain constraints on the stress state and the kinematics of sandwich plate. The kinematic hypotheses assure only the continuity of displacements at the interfaces of layers. However, the hypotheses have freedom to take into account the bending of face layers as well as both the transverse normal strains and transverse shear deformations of the core layer. It is shown that the well-known theories of sandwich plates due to Hoff and Reissner can be recovered simply by discarding the terms standing for the energy of transverse normal strains of the core layer and that of bending of the face layers, respectively. From the mechanical point of view, the paper is interesting, though it is restricted to both static, linear and elastic, nonpolar cases only. It remains to illustrate by some numerical examples the derived refined theories so as to display the importance of additional terms included in the derivation. The paper may appeal to the mathematically minded researchers working in the area of sandwich and laminated elastic plates of uniform thickness.