Dynamic analysis of composite sandwich plates with damping modelled using high-order shear deformation theory

The dynamic behaviour of fibre reinforced plastic sandwich plates with PVC foam core is investigated in this paper. Recently, the authors have develop ed an analytical method based on Reddy's refined high-order shear deformati on theory to study the dynamic behaviour of undamped fibre reinforced plast ic (FRP) sandwich plates. The present paper explains how the dynamic consti tutive material properties (obtained by carrying out DMTA tests) are introd uced into the analytical model using the elastic-viscoelastic principle. Th e obtained equations of motion are used to carry out steady state analysis and to determine the natural frequencies and modal loss factors of specific composite sandwich plates. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reser ved.