Intersections/Intersecţii, ISSN 1582-3024 45 Pages 45 - 58, Vol. 14 (New Series), 2017, No. 1 ISSN 1582-3024 http://www.intersections.ro Numerical Investigations of Stresses and Damage Distributions on the Layers of a Sandwich Beam with Composite Laminated Faces Subjected to Bending Iuliana Dupir (Hudișteanu), Nicolae Țăranu, Cristina Vlădoiu and Dragoș Ungureanu Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, Technical University ”Gheorghe Asachi”, Iasi, Zip code 700050, Romania Summary The sandwich elements are multi-layered structures made of two strong and stiff thin exterior faces, bonded by a lightweight thick core, such that the structural properties of the entire assembly are superior to those of the separate components. The composite laminates are build up by stacking two or more unidirectional fibre reinforced composite laminas, with different or same fibre orientation angles, thicknesses and materials constituents. The design flexibility of composite structures is a great challenge since the advantage of orienting the composite laminas in the needed directions leads to improved structural properties of the whole assembly. The paper presents the flexural response of a sandwich beam with exterior layers made of laminated composites with different fibre orientations. The results are presented in terms of distribution of stresses on the layers of the composite sandwich beam. The failure and the damage occurrence on the plies of the laminated facings are investigated according to the maximum strain failure criterion and to the modified Puck failure criterion. KEYWORDS: sandwich beam, composite laminate facings, stresses distributions, fibre orientations. 1. INTRODUCTION When compared to the traditional materials, composites have improved performances, such as high stiffness and strength, low density, high fatigue endurance, corrosion and wear resistance, environmental stability, tailoring advantages and adaptability to the intended function and requirements of the structure [1]. The unidirectional composite lamina is the simplest element of the composite material, formed by unidirectional fibres embedded in a matrix [2]. Moreover, a lamina can be considered an elementary layer of a composite laminate, which is