Numerical and Experimental Studies of Composites Sandwich Structure with a Rectangular Cut-Out

Abstract

Numerical and experimental study on honeycomb sandwich structure with a rectangular cut-out were carried out in this paper. Two designs were presented, with using a U-shaped sandwich structure or a combination of two separate sandwiches. Finite element models were developed and calculated using MSC.NASTRAN code by means of linear analysis and non-linear incremental deformation analysis. Compared with linear analysis, non-linear analysis was more suitable to evaluate the ability of sandwich structure with cut-out to resist compressive load. The results obtained from non-linear solution were verified by the supporting mechanical tests.