Static and Dynamic Buckling of Sandwich Columns

The paper deals with the theoretical prediction of buckling loads for sandwich columns with metallic and laminated facings and foam core. The loading is a uniform axial compression, applied statically (very slowly) and suddenly with constant magnitude and infinite duration (step loading). The effect of length and boundary conditions is assessed and results are presented for the following cases for a cantilever column, a simply supported column and a clamped column for lengths of 80 inches and 240 inches. Several fiber materials are used in the laminated facings. The static critical loads are computed from three different sources and the dynamic critical loads are obtained by employing the computer code DYNA3D. For the dynamic case, the Budiansky-Roth criterion is applied.