A non-asymptotic model of dynamics of honeycomb lattice-type plates

Lightweight structures, consisted of special composite material systems like sandwich plates, are often used in aerospace or naval engineering. In composite sandwich plates, the intermediate core is usually made of cellular structures, e.g. honeycomb micro-frames, reinforcing static and dynamic properties of these plates. Here, a new non-asymptotic continuum model of honeycomb lattice-type plates is shown and applied to the analysis of dynamic problems. The general formulation of the model for periodic lattice-type plates of an arbitrary lay-out was presented by Cielecka and Jedrysiak [Journal of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics 40 (2002) 23-46]. This model, partly based on the tolerance averaging method developed for periodic composite solids by Wozniak and Wierzbicki [Averaging techniques in thermomechanics of composite solids, Wydawnictwo Politechniki Czestochowskiej, Czestochowa, 2000], takes into account the effect of the length microstructure size on the dynamic plate behaviour. The shown method leads to the model equations describing the above effect for honeycomb lattice-type plates. These equations have the form similar to equations for isotropic cases. The dynamic analysis of such plates exemplifies this effect, which is significant and cannot be neglected. The physical correctness of the obtained results is also discussed. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.