Effects of Foam Joints on the Flexural Wrinkling Strength of Sandwich Panels

Abstract

In Australia, sandwich panels are commonly made of steel faces and expanded polystyrene foam cores. Flexural wrinkling is often the governing criterion in the design of these panels. The presence of joints between the polystyrene foam slabs in the transverse direction introduces a reduction to the flexural wrinkling stress of the panel. Therefore a series of full scale experiments and finite element analyses were conducted to evaluate the effects of transverse joints on the flexural wrinkling stress of sandwich panels with flat steel faces subjected to a lateral pressure loading. The results showed that the presence of transverse joints caused a significant reduction to wrinkling strength. This paper presents the details of this investigation, the results and comparison with available theoretical and design solutions.