An accurate zigzag theory for bending and buckling analysis of thick laminated sandwich plates with soft core

An accurate and computationally attractive zigzag theory is developed for bending and buckling analysis of thick laminated soft core sandwich plates. The kinematic assumptions of the proposed zigzag theory are obtained by superimposing a nonlinear zigzag function on the first-order shear deformation theory. In order to obtain the accurate transverse shear stresses, a preprocessing approach based on the three-dimensional equilibrium equations and the Reissner mixed variational theorem is used. It is significant that the second-order derivatives of in-plane displacement variables have been removed from the transverse shear stresses, such that the finite element implementation is greatly simplified. Thus, based on the proposed zigzag model, a computationally efficient four-node C-0 quadrilateral plate element with linear interpolation function is proposed for bending and buckling analysis of soft core sandwich plates. The advantage of the present formulation is that no post-processing approach is needed to calculate the transverse shear stresses while maintaining the computational accuracy of a linear plate element. Moreover, the accurate transverse shear stresses can be involved in the strain energy which can actively improve the accuracy of critical loads. Performance of the proposed model is assessed by comparing with several benchmark solutions. Agreement between the present results and the reference solutions is very good, and the proposed model only includes the seven displacement variables which can demonstrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed model.