Failure Mechanism of Sandwich Panels Under Three-Point Bending

Sandwich materials are potential candidates instead of traditional materials in several fields as aerospace, civil engineering and automotive because of their mechanical properties and especially their high ratio bending stiffness to weight. Three-point bending is a frequent process for forming sandwich panels before usage. This study presents an analysis of the damage of the sandwich panels during quasi-static tests in three-point bending. Experimental tests leading to the failure of the core of the sandwich material were carried out. Finite element analysis was also conducted for the numerical prediction of observed damage. Also, analytical Gibson’s modified model is considered to obtain the critical loads leading to the failure of the sandwich panels. This allows constructing a mode map for failure modes of sandwich panels in three points bending process.