An Experimental and Numerical Approach to Free Vibration Analysis of Woven Fibre Laminated Composite Shells

Abstract

The research work on free vibration of glass/epoxy and carbon/epoxy laminated composite shell confirming a cantilever boundary condition is presented in this study through experimental and numerical approaches. The experimental modal analysis is performed using an impact hammer technique to validate the simulated free vibration results. To this end, a shell model (S4R) is developed and simulated for free vibration frequencies using ABAQUS finite element simulation software. The recorded experimental and simulated results exhibit similitude within the test domain. The results conclude that the impact of geometrical parameters such as fibre orientation and the number of ply layers on natural frequencies is thoroughly investigated. The present results can be attributed to a comprehensive dynamic analysis of laminated composite shells and can be considered as an experimental benchmark result in the domain of free vibration in civil, mechanical and aerospace engineering applications.