Buckling behavior of a sandwich plate containing a soft core is studied. Geometric and material nonlinearities are considered. Points on the four edges of the bottom surface of the plate are restrained from moving vertically. The two opposite edges of the plate are loaded by equal in-plane compressive loads that increase linearly with time and the other two edges are kept traction free. The effects of the ratio of the elastic moduli of the outer layers to those of the core, and of the core thickness on the buckling load are analyzed. The top and the bottom layers are connected by very stiff blocks on two opposite edges. Deformations of the top and bottom layers sandwiching a soft layer start becoming uncoupled when the elastic moduli of the soft layer equal 1/200 of those of the top or the bottom layer and are totally uncoupled when this ratio of the elastic moduli equals 1/500,000. Larger thickness of the intermediate layer enhance this uncoupling effect.
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