Vibration Analysis of Composite Laminated and Sandwich Conical Shell Structures: Numerical and Experimental Investigation

The use of composite conical shell structures across the globe in various applications concentrates on nose cones and incredibly complex vehicle components in the aerospace and automotive industries. This work investigates the free vibration analysis of laminated conical shell (LCS) and sandwich conical shell (SCS) structures with various foam cores. The sandwich construction is fabricated using the hand layup technique. The vibration characteristics of the fabricated LCS and SCS specimens are validated with the Finite element software (ANSYS). Very minimal variation was observed between the experimental and numerical simulations. The various parametric analyses were also studied for the LCS and SCS with length, ply orientation, and boundary conditions. Further, for SCS, vibration behaviors across multiple core materials and core thickness were also investigated.

Automated summary

The study investigates the free vibration analysis of laminated and sandwich conical shell structures with various foam cores, which are widely used in aerospace and automotive industries. Experimental and numerical simulations show minimal variation in the vibration characteristics. Parametric analyses are conducted to study the effects of length, ply orientation, boundary conditions, multiple core materials, and core thickness on the vibration behaviors of the structures.