Free vibration analysis of curved sandwich beams.

Composite sandwich materials have found a place in many industrial applications because they have high rigidity and strength properties besides their lightness in recent years. Thanks to highly developed production technology, sandwich composites which their areas of use expand have been used in aviation, space and defense industries. Considering the area of usage, it is important to determine the mechanical properties for the safe design. One of the most important structural features is definitely vibration response of the system. The aim of this thesis is to investigate effect of the curvature on the vibration response of the composite sandwich beams experimentally and theoretically. Within the scope of this study, natural frequency values and mode shapes of the curved sandwich composite beams are examined for different geometrical parameters. In the numerical analyses, natural frequency values of and associated mod shapes of the curved sandwich composite beam are determined using ANSYS program based on the finite element method. Numerical natural frequency values are compared with the experimental results. Experimental studies are carried out for the clamped-free (cantilever) boundary condition. It is observed that there is good agreement between the experimental and numerical results. Numerical analyses are also performed to investigate the effect of the boundary condition on the free vibration response of the curved sandwich composite beams.