Forced and free vibrations of rectangular sandwich plates with parametric stiffness modulation

An active control of the resonant vibrations of a rectangular sandwich plate performed by the parametric stiffness modulation is analyzed. The controlled vibrations are those of the dominantly flexural type excited by the transverse force acting at the first resonant frequency of dominantly flexural vibrations. The stiffness modulation is performed at a comparatively high frequency identified by the resonance of a mode of the dominantly shear type. The method of direct partition of motions is used that predicts an existence of the modal interaction between these two modes of vibrations due to the parametric stiffness modulation. It is shown that such a parametric control can provide a significant shift of the first eigenfrequency of a controlled plate (the one subjected to the stiffness modulation) from its nominal value for an uncontrolled plate. Heavy fluid loading conditions are accounted for as well as the energy dissipation in the material of a plate. It is demonstrated that although heavy fluid loading reduces resonant frequencies of forced vibrations, the suggested mechanism of control remains valid in these cases. Dynamics of an elementary two-degree-of-freedom model mechanical system is considered to illustrate the mechanism of modal interaction, which is involved in the suggested way of an active control of vibrations of sandwich plates. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.