Bending of curved sandwich beams, a numerical approach

Abstract Curved sandwich beams in bending are analysed with the finite element method (FEM) and compared to simple analytical formulae and solutions to Airy's stress function. It is shown that the curvature can have a significant influence on the circumferential stresses in the faces and the radial stress in the core. It is also shown that there is very good correspondence between the exact elasticity solution and numerical results far away from stress concentrations. In design and sizing of curved sandwich members the results show that special considerations have to be taken to the stress concentrations that are present at the interface between the straight and curved parts of sandwich beams with both straight and curved segments. The use of layered sandwich shell elements and layered brick elements on curved sandwich beams in bending is investigated. The results with the layered elements show that poor correlation in stress levels to the analytical results can be expected for low to medium radius of curvature to sandwich thickness ratios.