Elastic foundation analysis of local face buckling in debonded sandwich columns

An elastic foundation model is developed for analysis of the local buckling behavior of foam core sandwich columns containing a through-width face/core debond. Parametric studies are performed to evaluate the effect of debond length, core thickness, core density, face sheet thickness, face sheet modulus, and boundary conditions, on the local buckling load. Model predictions are compared to experimental results obtained for sandwich specimens made from glass/vinylester face sheets over various PVC foam cores containing a face/core debond. The predictions are in reasonable agreement with measured buckling loads.