Book excerpt: The Behavior of Sandwich Structures of Isotropic and Composite Materials presents the mathematics, descriptions, and analytical techniques in the growing field of sandwich structures. From a background in sandwich structures to thermoelastic problems of sandwich structures and sandwich shell theory, the book provides the knowledge needed to analyze, design, and optimize various sandwich structures. As one would expect from a book on sandwich structures, this volume discusses special failure modes such as face wrinkling and core shear instability. Coverage includes not only honeycomb cores, but also foam, web, and truss cores. An important topic in composite structure design, optimization is explored in two chapters on sandwich plates and sandwich shells. The author presents the optimization techniques in closed form and the methods are applicable to material selection and geometric design. The book also contains a set of problems and references at the end of each chapter. This text is ideal for engineers-in-training, as well as practical engineers who desire a comprehensive understanding of sandwich structures technology.