The review outlines modern trends in theoretical developments, novel designs and modern applications of sandwich structures. The most recent work published at the time of writing of this review is considered, older sources are listed only on as-needed basis. The review begins with the discussion on the analytical models and methods of analysis of sandwich structures as well as representative problems utilizing or comparing these models. Novel designs of sandwich structures is further elucidated concentrating on miscellaneous cores, introduction of nanotubes and smart materials in the elements of a sandwich structure as well as using functionally graded designs. Examples of problems experienced by developers and designers of sandwich structures, including typical damage, response under miscellaneous loads, environmental effects and fire are considered. Sample applications of sandwich structures included in the review concentrate on aerospace, civil and marine engineering, electronics and biomedical areas. Finally, the authors suggest a list of areas where they envision a pressing need in further research.

Review of current trends in research and applications of sandwich structures

We report a new type of phononic crystals with topologically nontrivial band gaps for both longitudinal and transverse polarizations, resulting in protected one-way elastic edge waves. In our design, gyroscopic inertial effects are used to break the time-reversal symmetry and realize the phononic analogue of the electronic quantum (anomalous) Hall effect. We investigate the response of both hexagonal and square gyroscopic lattices and observe bulk Chern numbers of 1 and 2, indicating that these structures support single and multimode edge elastic waves immune to backscattering. These robust one-way phononic waveguides could potentially lead to the design of a novel class of surface wave devices that are widely used in electronics, telecommunication, and acoustic imaging.

Topological Phononic Crystals with One-Way Elastic Edge Waves

The feasibility of tuning the band structure of phononic crystals is demonstrated by employing magnetostrictive materials and applying an external magnetic field. Band structures are calculated with a plane wave expansion method that accounts for coupling between the elastic behavior and the magnetic field through the development of elastic, piezomagnetic, and magnetic permeability effective tensors. We show the contactless tunability of the absolute band gaps of a two-dimensional phononic crystal composed of an epoxy matrix and Terfenol-D inclusions. The tunable phononic crystal behaves like a transmission switch for elastic waves when the magnitude of an applied magnetic field crosses a threshold.

Tunable magnetoelastic phononic crystals

Etude des equations de mouvement de systemes a n corps soumis a des contraintes soit geometriques (boucles fermees), soit cinematiques (mouvement specifique)

Dynamics of constrained multibody systems

By employing periodic electrical boundary conditions, an innovative method to generate actively tunable topologically protected interface mode in a “homogeneous” piezoelectric rod system is proposed. Made of homogeneous material and with uniform structure, each unit cell of the piezoelectric rod system consists of three sub-rods forming an A-B-A structure, where the two A sub-rods have the same geometry and electric boundary conditions. It is discovered that the switch of electrical boundary conditions from A-closed and B-open to A-open and B-closed will yield topological phase inversion, based on which topologically protected interface mode is realized. When capacitors CA and CB are connected to the electrodes of sub-rods A and B, respectively, a variety of physical phenomena is observed. On one hand, varying the capacitance in a certain path leads to topological phase transition. On the other hand, different variation paths of the capacitors give rise to different locations of topological phase transition points. This discovery allows the eigenfrequency of the topologically protected edge mode thus formed be actively controlled by appropriately varying the capacitance. The active topological protected interface mode may find wide engineering applications that require high sensitivity sensing, nondestructive testing, reinforcing energy harvesting, information processing, and others.

Actively controllable topological phase transition in homogeneous piezoelectric rod system

Buckling and vibro-acoustic response of the clamped composite laminated plate in thermal environment

Dynamic modeling and robust nonlinear control of a six-DOF active micro-vibration isolation manipulator with parameter uncertainties

Thermal vibration characteristics of fiber-reinforced mullite sandwich structure with ceramic foams core

Effect of thermal stresses on frequency band structures of elastic metamaterial plates

Piecewise shear deformation theory and finite element formulation for vibration analysis of laminated composite and sandwich plates in thermal environments

Rui Zhao

Papers

Buckling and vibro-acoustic response of the clamped composite laminated plate in thermal environment

Dynamic modeling and robust nonlinear control of a six-DOF active micro-vibration isolation manipulator with parameter uncertainties

Thermal vibration characteristics of fiber-reinforced mullite sandwich structure with ceramic foams core

Effect of thermal stresses on frequency band structures of elastic metamaterial plates

Piecewise shear deformation theory and finite element formulation for vibration analysis of laminated composite and sandwich plates in thermal environments