Shear buckling of steel foam sandwich panel resting on Pasternak foundation

Abstract

Abstract The objective of this paper is to assess the inplane shear buckling of a steel foam sandwich panel that relies on elastic Pasternak foundation. The panel is a combination of solid steel face sheets and foamed steel cores. Foamed steel, that is steel with internal voids, provides enhanced bending rigidity and energy dissipation, and also, the potential to reduce local buckling. The Classic plate theory is employed where their governing equations are solved by the Rayleigh–Ritz method. Uniformly distributed in-plane shear loads are applied to the two opposite edges of the panel and all the four edges of the panel are simply supported. Finally, the effects of the panel parameters, such as the existence of a Pasternak foundation, aspect ratios, and central fraction of the steel foam core, are presented. The results showed that the optimum central fraction of the steel foam core would be 65%, so that the maximum critical shear buckling load has taken place.