Free vibration analysis of polymer pin-reinforced foam core sandwich composite panels

Abstract

This study deals with numerical and experimental free vibration analysis of through-the-thickness cylindrical polymer pin-reinforced foam core sandwich composite panels of two different core thicknesses. Four different pin-reinforcement configurations with varying pin diameters and pin center distances were used. First five non-zero eigenfrequencies were retrieved along with their eigenmodes in the numerical analysis. Experimental modal analysis was done for the validation of the numerical analysis. The results revealed that the pin-configuration with the densest pin allocation and the biggest pin diameter provided the highest natural frequencies, and the non-reinforced composites had the lowest natural frequencies. The increase in the pin diameter had a slightly more pronounced effect on the increase of the eigenfrequencies than the increase in the pin’s densities. This work also demonstrated the impact of the core thickness on the natural frequencies.