A method to measure shearing modulus of the foamed core for sandwich plates

This paper reports on a test method to evaluate the shearing modulus of foamed core which is used for sandwich plates. Although this kind of relatively soft core is widely used for various applications, a suitable test method has not necessarily been established. In the present study, a symmetric test sample with four pieces of core is used to eliminate undesirable deformation due to eccentric load. By varying the core length and the core thickness, we found that the shearing modulus strongly depends on the specimen configuration. This tendency was also recognized from the results of FEM and beam theory analyses where the shearing deformation is incorporated. Finally we propose a methodology for obtaining a reliable shearing modulus with the aid of FEM analysis.