Buckling Load Design of Sandwich Panels Made with Hybrid Laminated Faces and Transversely Flexible Core

This article presents an analytical approach for evaluating the buckling load of sandwich panels made of hybrid laminated faces and a transversely flexible core. Useful design indications are obtained once the influence of main parameters influencing the structural response is examined. The proposed model is based on a priori assumption of the displacement field through the thickness, which is composed of two sets of modal configurations, one symmetric and one antisymmetric, besides a pure compressive mode. An equivalent ‘single layer approach’, considering all displacement components (u, v,w) that linearly vary across the panel thickness, is used. For simply supported flat sandwich panels subjected to in-plane biaxial and shear loads, the Rayleigh–Ritz method is used to evaluate the buckling loads. Predictions of the proposed model are compared with those obtained by other available theoretical models and with experimental results. Finally, the best arrangement of sandwich panels, corresponding to the maximum buckling loads, is investigated by varying the parameters of both the faces and the core material.