DIRECT IDENTIFICATION OF ELASTIC-CONSTANTS OF ANISOTROPIC PLATES BY MODAL-ANALYSIS - EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

The determination of the six elastic stiffnesses of thin anisotropic p lates from vibration tests is usually performed with numerical procedu res based on the finite element or the Rayleigh-Ritz method, which bot h require assumptions concerning the studied mode shapes. The present paper describes a method based on the measurement and the processing o f natural frequencies as well as mode shapes of the vibrating tested p late. As a result, the unknown stiffnesses are determined directly, wi thout any iterative calculations. The experimental aspects of the meth od are presently described and several results illustrate the relevanc e of the approach. (C) 1998 Academic Press Limited.