Free Vibration Analysis of Polymer-Based Sandwich Composite Tapered Beams: Experimental and Numerical Investigation

Abstract

Polymer composite laminates with different core and sheet combinations are extensively adopted in the automotive and aerospace industries due to their low density, superior vibration-damping and shock absorption characteristics. This study presents the experimental and numerical analysis of the vibration behavior of sandwich tapered beams consisting of 3D printed acrylonitrile styrene acrylate (ASA) layers and AZ31B grade Mg alloy first time in the literature. First, the vibration analysis of tapered sandwich beams was conducted using the finite element method by ANSYS software. In addition, the solution approach was checked through comparison of the natural frequency values calculated from ANSYS software with literature studies. Then, the calculated natural frequencies were compared with experimental results to ensure the correctness of the numerical models. It was observed that the numerical findings showed great correspondence. Finally, we investigated in great detail how tapering angle and infill rate affected the natural frequencies of sandwich conical beams. According to the output, natural frequencies of the samples dropped as ASA's infill rate rose. Furthermore, it was found that the natural frequency dropped when the AZ31B layer was moved nearer the center.