Theoretical and experimental study of a sandwich circular plate under pure bending

The subject of the paper is a sandwich circular plate under pure bending. The mathematical model of the plate is presented. The equations of equilibrium are formulated based on the principle of stationary total potential energy. The formulae describing the deflection and stiffness of the plate as well as the strains in the faces are derived. To verify the mathematical model the experimental tests have been conducted. The faces of tested plates were made of aluminium and the core was made of closed cell aluminium foam. During the tests the deflection of the plates as well as the strains in the upper face were measured. The obtained results are compared with these given by the analytical approach and the finite element method. The FE model was elaborated it the ABAQUS code. Moreover the stiffness of the plates is calculated based on the three approaches. The failure mode of the plates is also discussed.