Vibration characteristics of arbitrary thick sandwich beam with metal foam core resting on elastic medium

Abstract

An analysis is performed in this research to obtain the natural frequencies and mode shapes of a thick sandwich beam with metal foam core. Different types of foams are considered for the sandwich beam where distribution of pores is a functionally graded patterns. The governing equations of the sandwich beam are established by means of a shear and normal deformable thick beam model. This theory considers the thickness stretching and admits the nonuniform through-the-thickness shear strain. The governing equations of the sandwich beam are established which are four in number by means of the Hamilton principle. The established equations are solved for the case of thick sandwich beams resting on elastic foundation via the Navier solution method. Results of this study are first compared with the available data in the open literature and after that novel results are given to explore the effects of different parameters on the vibration characteristics of the sandwich beam. It is shown that porosity of the core is an important factor on vibration characteristics of sandwich beam with metal foam core.