Enhanced static response of sandwich panels with honeycomb cores through the use of stepped facings

Sandwich panels have been developed to either produce lighter structures capable of carrying prescribed loads or to increase the load-carrying capacity subject to limitations on the weight. The major load-carrying elements of a sandwich structure are its facings, while the core primarily serves to resist transverse shear loads, enhance local strength and stability of the facings, and combine two facings into a single structural system. The facings being subject to in-plane tensile/compressive loads and to in-plane shear, their strength and stiffness are paramount to the sandwich structure. In this article we elucidate potential advantages of so-called ‘stepped’ facings with geometry modified to locally enhance the strength and stiffness at strategically important locations with a minimum effect on the weight. Numerous examples presented in the article validate our suggestion that a combination of a relatively simple manufacturing process and improved structural response of sandwich panels with stepped facings may present a designer with an attractive alternative to conventional sandwich structures.