Cell size effects for vibration analysis and design of sandwich beams

In this work, sandwich beams are studied to reveal the underlying size effects of the periodic core cells for the first time within the framework of free vibration analysis of such an advanced lightweight structure. The energy equivalence method is formulated as a theoretical approach that takes into account the cell size effect. It is compared with the asymptotic homogenization method and direct finite element method systematically to show their consistence and applicability. The accuracy of free vibration responses predicted by the detailed finite element model is used as the standard of comparison. It is shown that the cell size is an important parameter characterizing the cellular core rigidities that influence vibration responses. The homogenization model agrees exactly with the asymptotic solution of the analytical expression of the beam model only whenever the cell size tends to be infinitely small.