Experimental and Numerical Analysis of Compression and Shear Wrinkling in Sandwich Beams under Three-Point Bending
Befekadu GASHE, Abdulmaliq ALAWODE, Samuel RIVALLANT, Bruno CASTANIE
Abstract. Wrinkling is a local instability that can greatly reduce the load-carrying capacity of lightweight sandwich structures. This paper presents an experimental and numerical study of the wrinkling response of sandwich beams tested under three-point bending, with particular attention to the difference between compression-driven and shear-driven wrinkling. The specimens were made of glass fiber-epoxy skins bonded to a PMI ROHACELL® foam core. Two different stacking configurations were selected so that one specimen was more likely to develop compression wrinkling, while the other was intended to promote shear wrinkling. The experimental campaign was carried out to capture both the overall structural response and the local deformation patterns associated with the onset of instability. Force and displacement were recorded throughout the tests, and Digital Image Correlation (DIC) was used to monitor the deformation field and follow the development of wrinkling in detail. Alongside the experiments, finite element analyses were performed in ABAQUS, and the numerical results were compared with the test observations as well as with available analytical predictions. The comparison showed a good agreement for the compression-wrinkling case, where the numerical model was able to reproduce the measured behaviour with reasonable accuracy. In contrast, for the shear-wrinkling case, the numerical simulations predicted higher wrinkling loads than those observed experimentally. This difference suggests that shear wrinkling is more sensitive to modelling choices, especially geometric imperfections and mesh discretization. Overall, the results show that combining experiments, numerical simulations, and analytical estimates is a useful approach for better understanding wrinkling mechanisms and improving the prediction of instability-related failure in sandwich structures.
Keywords
Sandwich, Three-Point Bending, Compression, Wrinkling, Shear Wrinkling, Finite Element Analysis, Digital Image Correlation
Published online 11/8/2026, 6 pages
Copyright © 2026 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA
Citation: Befekadu GASHE, Abdulmaliq ALAWODE, Samuel RIVALLANT, Bruno CASTANIE, Experimental and Numerical Analysis of Compression and Shear Wrinkling in Sandwich Beams under Three-Point Bending, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 73, pp 37-42, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644904459-8
The article was published as article 8 of the book Mechanics of Advanced Materials and Structures
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
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