Compressive response of a sandwich plate containing a cracked diamond-celled lattice

The compressive strength is determined for a sandwich plate containing a centre-cracked core made from an elastic-brittle, diamond-celled lattice. It is assumed that the lattice fails when the major component of principal stress anywhere in the lattice attains the compressive or tensile strength of the solid, or when local buckling intervenes. First, analytical and numerical predictions are given for the unnotched strength of the core and for the compressive fracture toughness of the lattice K-IC. Second, finite element simulations and analytical models are reported for the fracture response of the sandwich plate with cracked core. The active failure mechanism in the cracked core is sensitive to core height, crack length, lattice geometry and material choice; this is illustrated by means of material-property charts. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.