Nonlinear Responses of a Cantilever Honeycomb Sandwich Plate under Aerodynamic Pressure

Abstract

Honeycomb sandwich structures can be used on wings of airplane and the wings may be simplified to a cantilever plate. Airplanes will be affected by airflows inevitably during flight. In this paper, nonlinear vibrations of a cantilever honeycomb sandwich panel affected by aerodynamic force are investigated. The equations of the cantilever honeycomb sandwich panel under aerodynamic pressure and in-plane excitation are obtained by using Hamilton’s principle and the Galerkin method. The equations are nonlinear ordinary differential equations in lateral oscillations with two degree of freedom. Nonlinear dynamics of the cantilever honeycomb sandwich panel under aerodynamic force are derived which is based on third-order piston theory. The nonlinear dynamics of the cantilever honeycomb sandwich panel under aerodynamic force and in-plane excitation are given by numerical simulations. The results show that one can adjust the frequency of the in-plane force to achieve the purpose of vibration reduction in a certain range. In the presence of in-plane forces and aerodynamic interaction, the dynamic behavior of the plate appears in a new form of vibration-intermittent flutter.