Vibration behavior of partially bio-sourced sandwich panel with orthogonally stiffened core: Analytical and experiment study

DBy the present paper, both experimental and analytical models have been proposed to study the vibration behavior of partially bio-sourced sandwich panel with orthogonally stiffened core. For a variable mass fraction of Alfa fibers from 5% to 15%, impregnated in a Medapoxy STR resin, this panel were manufactured by molding the orthogonally stiffened core then attached it with both skins. Using simply supported boundary conditions, a free vibration test was carried out using an impact hammer for predicting the natural frequencies, the mode shapes and the damping coefficient versus the fibers content. In addition, an analytical model based on the Higher order Shear Deformation Theory (HSDT) was developed to predict natural frequencies and the mode shapes according to Navier's solution. From the experimental test, we have found that the frequency increases with the increase in the mass fraction of the fibers until 10%. Beyond this fraction, the frequencies give relatively lower values. For the analytical model, variation of the natural frequencies increased considerably with side-to-thickness ratio (a/H) and equivalent thickness of the core to thickness of the face (hs/h). We concluded that, the vibration behavior was significantly influenced by geometrical and mechanical properties of the partially bio-sourced sandwich panel.