Analysis of the Failure Mechanism of the Sandwich Panel at the Supports

The paper presents the problem of static structural behavior of sandwich panels at supports. The panels have a soft core and correspond to typical structures applied in civil engineering. To analyze the failure propagation, the numerical 3-D model with non-linear material constitutive relations is applied. The numerical results are compared to the values obtained using simple engineering formulas. The obtained results show that the existing approach of assessing the failure by the level of the core compression is incorrect. The study verifies the assumption concerning the uniformity of normal stress distribution and describes the failure mechanism.