Vibration Characteristics of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites under Varying Fiber Orientation Composition

Abstract

Many engineering applications today are increasingly made of laminated composite plates. The properties of laminated composite plates can change as the laminate and fiber composition change, enabling the engineering structure and components to be customized according to the desired static or dynamic properties. Therefore, it is of interest to investigate variation in dynamic properties of composites under different fiber orientation composition to forecast their vibration response. In this study, the natural frequency and mode shape of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composite plates were obtained numerically under varying composition of the 0°, ±45° and 90° fiber orientations. Sixteen different cases were simulated using finite element method, showing changes in the natural frequency and mode shape of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composite plates with changes in the composition of the fiber orientation. The first five values of natural frequency and mode shape of the composite laminate were reported and analyzed using a surface regression method. In addition, the effect of the stacking sequence on the natural frequency of the composite plate having the same orientation composition was also analyzed. Comparison with previous studies showed good agreement of the present numerical modeling. Numerical results indicate potential to develop relationships to estimate modal properties based on composition of fiber orientation.