Assessment of various kinematic models for instability analysis of sandwich beams

The aim of this paper is to present and compare various one-dimensional (1D) finite element (FE) models which are based on different kinematic models. The kinematic models presented take into account thickness variations, but differ in the inclusion of the shear deformation effects in their kinematics formulations. These 1D FE models are used to study global and local instability phenomenon in sandwich beams. Simulations of the buckling and three-point bending tests are performed to verify the capability of each model to reproduce the linear and nonlinear mechanical response of sandwich beams. The predicted results using 1D FE models are compared to a two-dimensional (2D) FE analysis, which is considered as a reference solution.