Analytical determination of the ultimate strength of sandwich beams

An analytical determination of the ultimate strength of a typical GRP/PVC sandwich beam has been performed. These beams represent common building practise in marine applications. Equations describing the behaviour of a sandwich panel under beam loading and various failure modes have been developed. The method has been applied to predict the ultimate load for a simple supported sandwich beam. The critical loads have been compared with those from the experimental investigation of a typical bulkhead-to-hull GRP/PVC sandwich T-joint under pull out forces.