A higher-order sandwich plate theory accounting for 3-D stresses (Q5939416)

A layerwise higher-order shear-deformation theory is extended to model a sandwich plate impacting with an elastic foundation at a low velocity. A new concept of sublaminates is introduced, and the new sandwich plate theory satisfies the continuity conditions of interlaminar stresses and accounts for non-uniform distributions of transverse shear stresses in each layer. Moreover, the authors present analytical shear warping functions, shear coupling functions, and normal strain functions due to in-plane stretching, bending, transverse shearing, and surface loading.