The elastic stability of sandwich plates

This paper treats the elastic stability of supported rectangular plates of sandwich construction with isotropic and aeolotropic fillings under compression and shear loading. Formulae are developed for critical stresses for flat and curved panels in compression and flat panels in shear for the buckling of the whole panel, also for the wrinkling or local failure of the faces of flat panels in compression. A method is indicated for calculating the critical load of a cylinder in pure bending. It is established that for a wide range of conditions the critical stress for panels buckling in compression is independent of the form of the filling providing it is symmetrical about the normal; of the elastic constants of the filling only the transverse shear is of concern. As a result a simple extension of the equivalent plate theory of greatly improved accuracy is developed enabling the use of equations treating the plate as a whole.