A composite structural member designed to maximize bending stiffness while minimizing weight. The thin outer facesheets carry the tensile and compressive bending stresses, while the thick inner core resists shear loads and keeps the skins separated. This geometry drastically increases the area moment of inertia without adding significant mass.
We replaced the solid aluminum spar with a carbon-fiber sandwich beam to save forty pounds.
Related terms
Beam
A heavy oscillating lever used in early engines to transmit motion from a vertical piston to a rotating crank.
Honeycomb sandwich
A composite panel featuring a lightweight cellular core bonded between two thin, rigid facing sheets.
Sandwich theory
A mathematical framework used to analyze the stresses and deflections in composite sandwich structures.