Free Vibration Analysis of FRP Sandwich Composite Plate and Quantification of Uncertainties in its Vibration Response

Sandwich composite structures may have a significant variation in their dynamic behavior due to the uncertain preconditions of the manufacturing processes, material properties, geometry, etc. Therefore, quantifying and modeling such variability in the dynamic behavior of sandwich composite structures is a necessity. In this study, free vibration analysis is carried out for a glass-fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) sandwich composite plate. The natural frequencies are obtained by taking into account various uncertainties involved in preparing the sandwich composite plate. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) and Anderson-Darling (AD) goodness-of-fit (GOF) tests are performed for the quantification of the uncertainty of the natural frequencies. The appropriate probabilistic distribution describing the variability of the vibrational response is recommended. The knowledge of the uncertainty of dynamic responses might help to control the quality of the manufacturing process, as well as for the reliability study of the sandwich composite structures.

Automated summary

Sandwich composite structures can exhibit significant variation in their dynamic behavior due to uncertainties in the manufacturing processes, material properties, and geometry. This study focuses on quantifying and modeling the variability in the dynamic behavior of a glass-fiber reinforced plastic sandwich composite plate through free vibration analysis. The uncertainty of the natural frequencies is quantified using Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Anderson-Darling goodness-of-fit tests, and an appropriate probabilistic distribution is recommended to describe the variability of the vibrational response.