Homogenization of corrugated core sandwich panels

The present work is devoted to the computation of the effective properties of corrugated core sandwich panels. Due to their periodic structure, the homogenization theory is used, based on the asymptotic expansion method. At the leading order, an equivalent Kirchhoff-Love homogeneous plate is derived, with an overall behavior obtained from basic cell problems posed on the three-dimensional period of the panel. The finite element computation of these effective properties is presented in this paper. The accuracy of the homogenization method is proved, since the real panel and equivalent plate responses are very close for membrane and pure bending loadings. However, a discrepancy appears for simple bending loading, underlining that transverse shear effects cannot be neglected. Therefore, a specific study is developed in order to derive the transverse shear stiffness, thus enabling to determine an equivalent Reissner-Mindlin homogeneous plate. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.