Sandwich beams with functional gradient metal foam core are sensitive to local indention because of the low strength of the foam core and the low bending stiffness of the thin face sheets. The local indentation response of the sandwich beams are determined by loading the beams with a flat indenter. The sandwich beam is modelled as an infinite length, isotropic, plastic membrane on a rigid-plastic foundation. By using the principle of virtual velocities, concisely explicit theoretical solutions for the indentation forces and shape functions of deformed zones of the sandwich beams were derived. The analytical results were verified by numerical simulation results. The influence of the gradient foam core on the localized behaviour of the sandwich beam was discussed.
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