Homogenization of cellular sandwich panels

The Bending-Gradient plate theory originally presented in Lebée and Sab (International Journal of Solids and Structures 48 (2011) 2878–2888) is applied to cellular sandwich panels. This theory is the extension of the Reissner–Mindlin theory to heterogeneous plates. Its application clarifies common assumptions made in sandwich theory. It also enables to define a direct homogenization scheme for deriving the shear forces stiffness of sandwich panels. Finally, the conventional bounds used for estimating sandwich panels stiffnesses are justified.