Abstract: The lateral compressive performance for the structure of stainless steel sandwich panel was studied and analyzed theoretically. The effects of panel thickness, the wall thickness and spacing of core tube on the lateral compressive performance of the structure were mainly discussed. The experimental research showed that the specimens designed by different parameters mainly included three types of damage forms:local wrinkle instability, overall buckling instability, and local buckling instability, and they were respectively related to the longitudinal spacing of the core tube, the shear modulus and the flatwise compression modulus of the sandwich core. When the first two failure modes occurred, the ultimate displacement of the specimen and the ultimate stress of the panel were small, and the ductility was poor; when the local buckling instability occurred, the ultimate displacement of the specimen and the ultimate stress of the panel were large, and the ductility was good. In order to avoid the local wrinkle instability and the overall buckling instability under structural lateral pressure action, the measures to reduce the longitudinal spacing of the core tube and increase the shear modulus of the core were suggested.