"Most composite textbooks focus on basic laminate theory. This is an important subject, but it will only get you so far. At some point, you will need to move beyond simple point stress analysis and start looking at complex structures.One of Jack Vinson's earlier books, The Behavior of Structures Composed of Composite Materials, has long been on my list of essential references. It starts with a brief review of lamination theory, then gets right into the analysis of beams, plates, and shells. It is a graduate level textbook, but could be targeted to advanced seniors.The Behavior of Sandwich Structures picks up where The Behavior of Structures leaves off. It essentially covers the same types of structures, but at a more advanced level. It also covers some new subject areas like structural optimization.Any sandwich structure, whether it has isotropic or anisitropic facesheets, can be treated as a composite. Traditional composite theories can be used, with the important addition of transverse shear effects.Governing differential equations are given for beams, plates, and shells. Several solution methods are outlined, including both direct solutions and energy methods. Solutions for some specific geometries and boundary conditions are worked out in full, but most are left as an excercise (this is a textbook, after all). Governing equations and solutions cover static and dynamic loads, thermal and moisture effects, and eigenvalues (natural frequencies and stability).As one would expect from a book on sandwich structures, special failure modes such as face wrinkling and core shear instability are discussed. Core materials aren't limited to honeycomb, but also include foam-cores, web-cores, and truss-cores.One of the more important topics in composite structure design is optimization, and Dr. Vinson provides two chapters on the subject: one for sandwich plates; and one for sandwich shells. The optimization techniques are all closed form, so you won't see much on layup optimization, but the methods are applicable to material selection and geometric design. After working through some optimization solutions, some general design guidelines become apparent.Aside from the primary technical content, Sandwich Structures contains a list of homework problems (again, it's meant to be a textbook) and references at the end of each chapter. Many of the references are to other works by Dr. Vinson, but that just shows he is the right person to author this book.If you've read any of my earlier reviews, you know that I'm quite picky when it comes to typography and grammar. In that sense, this book was a pleasant change: I found only a few typos in equations, and even fewer obvious grammatical errors. … the binding is of good quality.Even if you aren't designing sandwich structures, you will still find this book useful. Because sandwiches are treated like composites, the theories and solutions can be applied to monocoque structures. And if you are designing sandwich structures, then this book will make your job a lot easier."-About.com book review
