• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.289-306
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• 2003

A series of tests was conducted to study the behaviour of steel-composite sandwich beams under low velocity hard impact. Damage characteristic and performance of sandwich beams with different spacing of shear connector were evaluated under impact loading. Thin steel plates were used as top and bottom skins of the sandwich beams and plain concrete was used as the core material. Shear connectors were provided by welding of angle sections on steel plates. The sandwich beams were impacted at their midpoint by a hemi-spherical nose shaped projectile dropped from various heights. Strains on steel plates were measured to study the effects of impact velocity or impact momentum on the performance of sandwich beams. Spacing of shear connectors is found to have significant effects on the impact response of the beams.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.481-492
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• 2020

A New hyperbolic shear deformation theory is developed for the bending analysis of softcore and hardcore functionally graded sandwich beams. This theory satisfies the equilibrium conditions at the top and bottom faces of the sandwich beam and does not require the shear correction factor. The governing equations are derived from the principle of virtual work. Sandwich beams have functionally graded skins and two types of homogenous core (softcore and hardcore). The material properties of functionally graded skins are graded through the thickness according to the power-law distribution. The Navier solution is used to obtain the closed form solutions for simply supported FGM sandwich beams. The accuracy and effectiveness of proposed theory are verified by comparison with previous research. A detailed numerical study is carried out to examine the influence of the deflections, stresses, and sandwich beam type on the bending responses of functionally graded sandwich beams.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.1001-1021
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• 2015

Ultra-lightweight cement composite (ULCC) with a compressive strength of 60 MPa and density of $1,450kg/m^3$ has been developed and used in the steel-concrete-steel (SCS) sandwich structures. This paper investigates the structural performances of SCS sandwich composite beams with ULCC as filled material. Overlapped headed shear studs were used to provide shear and tensile bond between the face plate and the lightweight core. Three-dimensional nonlinear finite element (FE) model was developed for the ultimate strength analysis of such SCS sandwich composite beams. The accuracy of the FE analysis was established by comparing the predicted results with the quasi-static tests on the SCS sandwich beams. The FE model was also applied to the nonlinear analysis on curved SCS sandwich beam and shells and the SCS sandwich beams with J-hook connectors and different concrete core including ULCC, lightweight concrete (LWC) and normal weight concrete (NWC). Validations were also carried out to check the accuracy of the FE analysis on the SCS sandwich beams with J-hook connectors and curved SCS sandwich structure. Finally, recommended FE analysis procedures were given.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.243-261
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• 2022

Broad writing on the examination of sandwich structures mirrors the significance of incorporating thermal loadings during their investigation stage. In the current work, an endeavor has been made to concentrate on sandwich FGM beams' bending behaving under thermal loadings utilizing shear deformation theory. Temperature-dependent material properties are used during the analysis. The formulation includes the transverse displacement field, which helps better predict the behavior of thick FGM beams. Three-different thermal profiles across the thickness of the beam are assumed during the analysis. The study has been carried out on both symmetric and unsymmetric sandwich FGM beams. It has been observed that the bending behavior of sandwich FGM beams is impacted by the temperature profile to which it is subjected. Power-law exponent and thickness of core also affect the behavior of the beam.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.457-468
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• 2007

Analytical and experimental investigation on dynamic properties of extra lightweight concrete sandwich beams reinforced with various lay ups of carbon reinforced epoxy polymer composites (CFRP) are discussed. The lightweight concrete used in the core of the sandwich beams was made up of extra lightweight aggregate, Lica. The density of concrete was half of that of the ordinary concrete and its compressive strength was about $100Kg/cm^2$. Two extra lightweight unreinforced (control) beams and six extra lightweight sandwich beams with various lay ups of CFRP were clamped in one end and tested under an impact load. The dimension of the beams without considering any reinforcement was 20 cm ${\times}$ 10 cm ${\times}$ 1.4 m. These were selected to ensure that the effect of shear during the bending test would be minimized. Three other beams, made up of ordinary concrete reinforced with steel bars, were tested in the same conditions. For measuring the damping capacity of sandwich beams three methods, Logarithmic Decrement Analysis (LDA), Hilbert Transform Analysis (HTA) and Moving Block Analysis (MBA) were applied. The first two methods are in time domain and the last one is in frequency domain. A comparison between the damping capacity of the beams obtained from all three methods, shows that the damping capacity of the extra lightweight concrete decreases by adding the composite reinforced layers to the upper and lower sides of the beams, and becomes most similar to the damping of the ordinary beams. Also the results show that the stiffness of the extra lightweight concrete beams increases by adding the composite reinforced layer to their both sides and become similar to the ordinary beams.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.85 no.2
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• pp.217-231
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• 2023

The bending analysis of sandwich functionally graded (FG) beams under temperature circumstances is performed in this article utilizing Navier's solution-based parabolic shear deformation theory. For the first time, a comparative study has been carried out between the exponential and sigmoidal sandwich FGM beams under thermal conditions. During this investigation, temperature-dependent material characteristics are postulated. Both symmetric and unsymmetric sandwich examples have been studied. The effect of gradation law, gradation coefficient, and thickness scheme on beam behavior has been thoroughly investigated. Three possible temperature combinations at the top and bottom surfaces of the beam are also investigated. Beams with a higher proportion of ceramic to metal are shown to be more resistant to thermal stresses than beams with a higher proportion of metal.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.65 no.6
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• pp.657-678
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• 2018

Sandwich structures are well known for their use in aircraft, naval and automobile industries due to their high strength resistance with light weight and high energy absorption capability. Sandwich beams with soft core are very common and simple structures that are employed in day to day general use appliances. Modeling and analysis of sandwich structures is not straight forward due to the interactions between core and face sheets. In this paper, formulation of Super Convergent finite elements for analysis of the sandwich beams with soft core based on Euler Bernoulli beam theory are presented. Two elements, Eul4d with 4 degrees of freedom assuming rigid core in transverse direction and Eul10d with 10 degrees of freedom assuming the flexible core were developed are presented. The formulation considers the top, bottom face sheets and core as separate entities and are coupled by beam kinematics. The performance of these elements are validated by results available in the published literature. Number of studies are performed using the formulated elements in static, free vibration and wave propagation analysis involving various boundary and loading conditions. The paper highlights the advantages of the elements developed over the traditional elements for modeling of sandwich beams and, in particular wave propagation analysis.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.259-271
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• 2019

This paper presents forced vibration analysis of sandwich deep beams made of functionally graded material (FGM) in face layers and a porous material in core layer. The FGM sandwich deep beam is subjected to a harmonic dynamic load. The FGM in the face layer is graded though the layer thickness. In order to get more realistic result for the deep beam problem, the plane solid continua is used in the modeling of The FGM sandwich deep beam. The equations of the problem are derived based the Hamilton procedure and solved by using the finite element method. The novelty in this paper is to investigate the dynamic responses of sandwich deep beams made of FGM and porous material by using the plane solid continua. In the numerical results, the effects of different material distributions, porosity coefficient, geometric and dynamic parameters on the dynamic responses of the FGM sandwich deep beam are investigated and discussed.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.207-227
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• 2017

In this paper Timoshenko beam theory is employed to investigate the vibration characteristics of functionally graded carbon nanotube-reinforced composite (FG-CNTRC) Beams with a stiff core in thermal environment. The material characteristic of carbon nanotubes (CNT) are supposed to change in the thickness direction in a functionally graded form. They can also be calculated through a micromechanical model where the CNT efficiency parameter is determined by matching the elastic modulus of CNTRCs calculated from the rule of mixture with those gained from the molecular dynamics simulations. The differential transform method (DTM) which is established upon the Taylor series expansion is one of the effective mathematical techniques employed to the differential governing equations of sandwich beams. Effects of carbon nanotube volume fraction, slenderness ratio, core-to-face sheet thickness ratio, different thermal environment and various boundary conditions on the free vibration characteristics of FG-CNTRC sandwich beams are studied. It is observed that vibration response of FG-CNTRC sandwich beams is prominently influenced by these parameters.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.907-927
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• 2014

Ultra-lightweight cement composite (ULCC) with a compressive strength of 60 MPa and density of $1450kg/m^3$ has been developed and used in the steel-concrete-steel (SCS) sandwich structures. ULCC was adopted as the core material in the SCS sandwich composite beams to reduce the overall structural weight. Headed shear studs working in pairs with overlapped lengths were used to achieve composite action between the core material and steel face plates. Nine quasi-static tests on this type of SCS sandwich composite beams were carried out to evaluate their ultimate strength performances. Different parameters influencing the ultimate strength of the SCS sandwich composite beams were studied and discussed. Design equations were developed to predict the ultimate resistance of the cross section due to pure bending, pure shear and combined action between shear and moment. Effective stiffness of the sandwich composite beam section is also derived to predict the elastic deflection under service load. Finally, the design equations were validated by the test results.