The application of sandwich structures has increased in the last decades, due to its high stiffness, low weight and good impact, sound and thermal properties. The recent use of sandwich structures with aluminum alloy foams and aluminum skins in the car industry has motivated this paper. The present work deals with the finite element analysis of such structures. Higher-order shear deformation theories are applied in the finite element analysis of sandwich structures. The third-order and layerwise approaches are used. The elasto-plastic analysis is based on an associative flow formulation. A simply-supported beam is tested and analysed by finite elements. The agreement between finite element analysis and experimental results is very good.