Studying the mechanical behavior of metal cores provides insight into the overall
performance of structures comprising metal sandwich plates, and can help immensely
in designing metal sandwich plates for specific engineering applications. In this study,
the response of folded (corrugated) plate and pyramidal truss cores are explored
under both quasistatic and dynamic loadings. In particular, two important
characteristics of metal cores, the nonuniform hardening/softening evolution due to
stressing in different directions and the rate-dependence, are discussed for different
core topologies, including the square honeycomb core. In addition, the role of
core behavior on the overall performance of sandwich plates is studied by
employing a constitutive model for the elastic-plastic behavior of plastically
compressible orthotropic materials [?]. The constitutive model is capable of
capturing both the anisotropy of the core, associated with stressing in different
directions, and its rate-dependence. The approach, based on employing the core
constitutive model, not only significantly reduces the computation time, but
also permits exploration of the role of each fundamental rate-dependent
response of the metal core on the overall response of the metal sandwich
plates.
