Link to Index Page

The sandwich core foam consists of tiny steel spherical shells: a) overall interior foam, b) contact between spheres, c) foam core is not fully dense.

From:
Z. Li (1) and S. Szyniszewski (2)
(1) Postdoctoral Research Associate, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, lizhanjie@jhu.edu
(2) Assistant Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of Surrey, <s.szyniszewski@gmail.com>

“Finite prism elastic buckling analysis and application in steel foam sandwich members”, Proceedings of the Annual Stability Conference Structural Stability Research Council, St. Louis, Missouri, April 16 – 20, 2013

ABSTRACT: The objective of this research is to develop a layer-wise finite prism method for studying the elastic buckling of steel foam sandwich members. Foamed steel, literally steel with internal voids, enables lightweight and stiff components. Steel foam sandwich panels (steel face sheets and low-density, highly porous foam core) exhibit higher bending rigidity and plate buckling strength in comparison to slender, steel plates with the same weight. Analytical sandwich plate buckling solutions are not applicable to buckling analysis of cold-formed sandwich members with interaction between local and global buckling modes. Finite element analysis (either solid 3D or shell representation) provides the most reliable solution; however, its use is complicated, computationally expensive, and not practical for engineers. The proposed layer-wise finite prism solution is an alternative, easy-to-use tool, which builds upon the shape functions available in the literature, and is verified against eigenbuckling finite element solutions implemented in LS- DYNA software. Future research is needed to incorporate the elastic buckling solutions in the direct strength design of sandwich panel members.

Page 77 / 180