Free vibrational responses of FRP composite plates: Experimental and numerical studies

A combined experimental and numerical study of the free vibration of composite FRP plates has been carried out. Modal testing has been conducted using impact excitation to determine the respective frequency response functions from which the modal parameters are extracted. A finite element method based computer code using an isoparametric element has also been developed to determine the modal characteristics. A commercial finite element package (NISA) has been used to validate the present code. Both theoretical and experimental results are compared and causes of discrepancies are investigated. The experimental data were found to correlate well with the numerical predictions.