The effects of various design parameters on the free vibration of doubly curved composite sandwich panels

Sandwich panels have a very high stiffness to weight ratio, which makes them particularly useful in the aerospace industry where carbon fibre reinforced plastics and lightweight honeycomb cores are being used in the construction of floor panels, fairings and intake barrel panels. In the latter case, the geometry of the panels can be considered doubly curved. This paper presents an introduction to an ongoing study investigating the dynamic response prediction of acoustically excited composite sandwich panels which have double curvature. The final objective is to assess and hopefully produce an up to date set of acoustic fatigue design guidelines for this type of structure. The free vibration of doubly curved composite honeycomb sandwich panels is investigated here, both experimentally and theoretically, the latter using a commerically available finite element package. The design and manufacture of three test panels is covered before presenting experimental results for the natural frequencies of vibration with freely supported boundary conditions. Once validated against the experimental results, the theoretical investigation is extended to study the effects of changing radii of curvature, orthotropic properties of the core, and ply orientation on the natural frequencies of vibration of rectangular panels with various boundary conditions. The results from the parameter studies show curve veering: particularly when studying the effect of changing radii and ply orientation, however, it is not clear whether this phenomenon is due to the approximation method used or occurs in the physical system. (C) 2000 Academic Press.