SEC18: Proceedings of the 11th Structural Engineering Convention - 2018

Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India, December 19 - 21, 2018

Paper No. 20180105

FREE VIBRATION AND BUCKLING OF SANDWICH PLATE WITH

CUT-OUT

Subhankar Pramanik1*, Sreyashi Das2

1*
Research Scholar, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, INDIA, e-mail: spsubhankar.ju@gmail.com
2
Assistant Professor, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, INDIA, e-mail: palsreyashi@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

This study deals with free vibration and buckling behavior of sandwich plate with cut-out by finite element
method. Numerical results for the natural frequencies and critical buckling loads of sandwich plate with
cut out are presented. The influences of the core thickness, different cutout sizes, boundary condition and
angle of ply orientation on top and bottom layer, on the natural frequencies and critical buckling loads are
investigated. In buckling problem combination of uniaxial loading and biaxial loading are taken in the
studies. Different mode shape of vibration and buckling shape are shown in the study. The whole studies
are done in finite element method using eight noded quadratic elements by developing MATLAB program.
First order shear deformation theory is adopted in the study. This study concludes that presence of cutout
changes the stiffness of the structure and hence alters its behavior in vibration and buckling.
Keywords: Buckling; Buckling Shape; Cutout,Finite Element Method, Free Vibration; Mode Shape
Sandwich Plate

laminated composite and sandwich plates have

1. INTRODUCTION
These days, sandwich structures are highly
acclaimed constructional elements in different
fields of engineering application. A Sandwich
structure is a special type of laminated structure
composed of two thin face sheets along with a
thick flexible core. The face sheets are
generally unidirectional laminated fiber
reinforced composites and the core is a thick
layer of low density material. The stiffness of
the structure considerably increased due to the
separation of the face sheets, while the thick
layer of low density core makes the structure
light. Cut-outs are provided in structural
components for example, different components
like wing, spar, fuselage, and ribs, wall etc. for
accessing, inspection, electric and hydraulic
lines, fuel lines as well as to reduce the overall
weight. Hence the dynamic characteristics and
buckling load of structures in the presence of
cutout have attracted many researchers for
detail analysis of the same. The classical plate
theory (CPT) [1] and first order shear
deformation theory (FSDT) [2] are commonly
used theory for the analysis of laminated
composite plates. Several review articles on
been reported in the literature by various
researchers. Sai Ram et al.[3] studied free
vibration and buckling characteristics of
laminated composite plate with and without
cut-out. Ashwini Kumar and R.P. Shrivastava[4]
developed a finite element formulation based on
Higher Order Shear Deformation Theory to
study the free vibration response of thick square
composite plates having a central cutout. Kant
et al [5] have done free vibration of isotropic,
orthotropic and multilayer plates based on
Higher order refined theories. Sing et al.[6]
analysed laminated compomposite plate using
an efficient Co FE model. In 2012 Ovesy et al
[7] studied the buckling and free vibration
analysis of composite plate with cutout using
two different modeling approaches. Shivkumar
[8] studied the processing and properties of a
lightweight fire resistant core material for
sandwich structures.
In this present study a MATLAB program has
been developed to study the free vibration and
buckling characteristics of a sandwich plate
with central cutout. A Eight-noded
isoparametric quadratic elements are used to
model the structure. Parametric studies have
been performed to show the effect of cutout
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ratio, different core thickness and various angle ([ K ' ] − n2 [M ]) = 0 (8)
ply orientation.
The non-linear part of the overall strains in a
2. THEORETICAL FORMULATION laminated plate can be expressed as

The mathematical model is complicated by the

orthotropic nature of the material. First order
transverse shear deformation based on Yang-
Norris-Stavsky (YNS) theory [9] is used along ]
with rotary inertia of the material. The
displacement field related to mid plane
displacement as (9)
u = u0 + z y , v = v0 − z x , w = w0 ,
(1) The Geometric Stiffness Matrix for the structure
 x =  y + w, x , y = − x + w, y [KaGE] is developed from non-linear strains [3].
The governing equations for buckling(1) is as
where displacement and rotations follow right given.
hand cork screw rule with z direction upward. ( [K] – [ ) =0 (10)
The notations have their usual meaning. φx and From these equation natural frequencies,
φy are shear rotation about x and y axis different mode shapes and critical buckling
respectively. loads are calculated. Two types of Loading
The stiffness matrix of the plate element is in Conditions as shown in Fig. 1 are taken in the
the form study:
K e =  B
DBdA
T (2) a. Uniaxial Loading (2)
b. Biaxial Loading
where, { } = [B]{ i } (3)
{ε} being the strain vector, and {δi} the nodal
displacement vector. [B] is the strain
displacement matrix and [D] is the stiffness
matrix given by
 Aij Bij 0 
D =  Bij Dij 0  (4)
 0 0 Alm 
(3)
a. Uniaxial Load
Where,
N zk

Aij , Bij , Dij =   (Qij ) k (q, z, z 2 )dz, i, j = 1,2,6 (5)

k =1 z k −1

N zk
And A =
ij    (Qij )k dz, l, m = 4,5
k =1 z k −1
(6)

α is a shear correction factor, taken as 5/6, to

take account for the non-uniform distribution of
the transverse shear strain across the thickness
of the laminate. The mass matrix of the plate
element is given by
M e =  N T  N dA (7) b. Biaxial Load
Ae

[ρ]being the density matrix functions. Eight-
noded isoparametric plate elements with 6
degrees of freedom per node have been
implemented in the present computations.
Finally, the governing equation can be written
as
Figure.1 Different loading conditions
A 3x3 integration of Gauss Quadrature is used
in the evaluation of bending stiffness and
geometric stiffness where as a 2x2 reduced
 SEC18: Paper No. 20180105

integration is employed for shear stiffness terms
and element mass matrix. The purpose of
reduced integration is to reduce the shear
stiffness of the element.
3. NUMERICAL RESULTS AND
DISCUSSION
The finite element formulation described in the
earlier section has been used to generate
numerical results to study the effects of cut-out
in a plate on its dynamic and buckling
characteristics. A MATLAB program have been
developed to do the parametric study varying
core thickness, boundary condition, cutout sizes
and angle of ply orientation on top and bottom
layer, on the natural frequencies and critical
buckling loads. A meshing of 10 X 10 elements
have been taken along each side (Fig 2a and 2b).
laminated composite plate without any cut-out
3.1.1Validation for Free Vibration for a
laminated composite plate without any cut-
out
Validation has been performed for a cantilever
composite laminated plate for free vibration
analysis to observe the accuracy and reliability
of the present code in modelling of composite
laminated plate. The dimension of the
composite laminated plate is taken as 1m x 1m
x .010m. The lamination of plate is (0/90/90/0).
The material properties used are as given.
E1=130GPa, E2=9.5GPa, G12=G13=6.0GPa,
G23=3.0GPa, ν12=0.23, ρ=1600 Kg/m3. The
result is compared with ANSYS and shown in
Table 1. Good agreement of the result have been
shown.
Table.1 Natural Frequency of cantilever plate (Hz)
Mode Present ANSYS
1 6.34 6.34
CFFF 2 13.57 13.56
3 39.88 39.87
4 52.45 52.41
5 90.82 90.73

3.1.2. Validation study for composite plate

with cut-out
A simply supported plate of size 1m x 1m x
Figure.2a. Without cut-out meshing 0.01m with cut out size 0.4mx0.4m with the
material E1=130GPa, E2=10GPa, G12 = G13 = 5.0
GPa, G23=3.3GPa, ν12=0.35, ρ=1500 Kg/m3 have
been taken in the study and the programme is
validated with Ashwini Kumar and R.P.
Shrivastava [4] as shown in Table 2. It is
shown that results matches quite well with
the paper published [4].
Table.2 Non-dimensional Natural Frequency of Simply
supported plate (λ= ωna2 (ρ/E2h2)1/2)
Present Paper[4]
1 14.86 14.86
Figure.2b Centre cut out of sizes 0.4mx0.4m
2 28.02 26.68
SSSS 3
3.1VALIDATION: 28.02 29.91
The validation of the above program is done 4 50.54 49.76
comparing the result with ANSYS and other 5 53.45 54.10
published journal. The validation is done in
three parts.
i. Validation for Free Vibration Problem for a
laminated composite plate without any cut-out
ii. Validation for Free Vibration Problem for a
laminated composite plate with cut-out
iii. Validation for Buckling Problem for a
 SEC18: Paper No. 20180105

3.1.3 Validation for Buckling of composite (0o/45o/core/45o/0o), (0o/60o/core/60o/0o),

plate (0 /75 /core/75 /0 ) and (0o/90o/core/90o/0o).
o o o o

The natural frequencies in Hz are tabulated in

A simply supported cross ply laminated (0/90/0) Table 4. Graph has been plotted showing
square plate of size 1m x 1m with a/h=10 is
taken for the validation study. The material Table 4: Natural Frequency (Hz) for different fibre angle
properties used are G12 = G13 = 0.6E2, G23 = Ply Sequence Mode1 Mode2 Mode3 Mode4 Mode5
0.5E2, ν12 =ν13 =0.25. Normalized critical uni-
0/30/core/30/0 98.92 146.07 146.07 230.02 235.21
axial and bi-axial buckling loads are found out
for various modular ratio and compared with 0/45/core/45/0 102.04 149.49 149.49 233.93 240.09
Chien H. Thai [10]. It is observed that the 0/60/core/60/0 105.55 152.48 152.48 235.79 245.05
present results matches reasonably with the 0/75/core/75/0 108.44 154.25 154.25 235.59 248.12
published results.
0/90/core/90/0 109.74 154.50 154.50 234.00 248.64

Table.3 Validations of Non dimensional Buckling Load

variation of fundamental frequency and non-
[ =λ ].
dimensional critical buckling load [ =λ ]
for different fibre angle as in Fig.3a and 3b.
Loading E1/E2 Present Paper[10]
10 9.47 9.63
Uniaxial 20 14.66 14.64
30 18.76 18.61
40 22.10 21.85
10 4.74 4.81
Biaxial 20 7.31 7.32
30 8.74 8.69
40 9.99 9.78 Fig. 3a Natural Frequency for different fibre
orientation
3.2 CASE STUDY:
A sandwich plate of FRP face sheets and
HEREX C70.130 PVC foam core is taken for
the study. The facings are made of glass
polyester resins. 1m X 1m plate with total
thickness as 10mm is taken in the study. The
material property used are as given below.

Face:
E1=24.51GPa,E2=7.77GPa,G12=G13=3.34GPa,
G23=1.34.0GPa, ν12= ν21=0.078, ρ=1800 Kg/m3
Core:
E1=E2=0.104GPa, G12=G13= G23 = 0.05 GPa, Fig. 3b Critical buckling load for different fibre
orientation
ν12=ν21=0.33, ρ=130 Kg/m3
From Table 4, it is seen that for every mode, the
The following case studies are done.
natural frequency increases with increase in
angle with maximum stiffness for cross ply
3.2.1 Case Study-1: Study of dynamic and
laminated sandwich plate. From Fig 3a it is
buckling behaviour of sandwich plate for
different angel ply orientation.
noticed that the rate of increase is nearly same
from angle value 30o to 75o. After that the
Natural frequency and critical buckling loads of increase in stiffness is very nominal.
sandwich plate are calculated for the cut-out From Fig 3b, it is seen that the buckling loads
size 0.4mx0.4m plate in clamped boundary are nearly same when tested for bi-axial load.
condition. The core thickness is taken as 6mm. For uni-axial load, the critical buckling load
The fiber angles are taken as (0o/30o/core/30o/0o), reduces a little with increase in fibre angle value.
 SEC18: Paper No. 20180105

Also it is seen that the critical load for uniaxial in stiffness is less than that of mass. Hence there
loading is greater than that of bi-axial loading. is increase in frequency with decreasing core
thickness. For other cutouts, for 7mm and 8mm
5.2. Case Study2-: Study of dynamic behaviour core, the ratio of stiffness and mass remain
of sandwich plate with varying cut outs for nearly same. So there is very little effect on
different core thickness. natural frequency. For 6mm core, this ratio
In this case Natural frequencies in Hz are increases, thus increasing the frequency. First
calculated in cross ply laminated sandwich plate three mode shapes of sandwich plate for
(0o/90o/core/90o/0o) with material property as in 0.2x0.2m cutout are plotted in Fig. 4.
case study 1, for variation in cutout size and
core thicknesses. The cutout sizes are taken as
0.1m X 0.1m, 0.2m X 0.2m, 0.3m X 0.3m and
0.4m X 0.4m. Three different core thicknesses
(6mm, 7mm and 8mm) have been taken taking
total thickness same as 10mm. The boundary
conditions shown here are both simply
supported (SSSS) and clamped (CCCC) on all
sides.
Mode-1
Table 5. Natural frequencies (Hz) for
different core thicknesses (top+core+bottom)
mm and cutout sizes
cutout 1+8+1 1.5+7+1.5 2+6+2
size
0.1x0.1 57.71 59.85 69.70
CCCC

0.2x0.2 80.52 79.58 77.47

0.3x0.3 89.49 89.76 86.17
0.4x0.4 112.14 112.04 109.74
0.1x0.1 27.38 29.83 37.96 Mode-2
SSSS

0.2x0.2 41.19 40.79 39.80

0.3x0.3 42.31 42.70 40.62
0.4x0.4 47.18 47.44 46.75

From table 2 it is observed that for a particular

core thickness, there is increase in fundamental
frequency with increase in cutout sizes. In this
case, stiffness decreases with increase in cutout
sizes, though the mass decrease is more than
that of stiffness. This effect is prominent for
CCCC support conditions.
For 0.1m X 0.1m cutout, the frequency
increases with decrease in core thickness. The
increase in frequency is prominent for 6mm
core. For 7mm and 8mm thick core, the changes
in frequency is very nominal. The reason may
be that with the increasing laminate facing
thickness, stiffness is increasing because of its
better material property. On the other side
overall weight of plate is increasing very much
due to higher density (1800kg/m3) of laminate
with decreasing core weight due to low density
(130kg/m3). The mass becomes 4.64, 6.31 and
7.98 kg/m2 respectively for 8mm, 7mm and
6mm core. For 0.1mX0.1m cutout the decrease
Mode-3
Fig 4. First Three mode shapes for sandwich plate
with 0.2mX0.2m cutout size
From Fig 4, it can be observed that the 2nd and
3rd modes for the sandwich plate are similar.
5.3. Case Study-3: Study of buckling behaviour
of sandwich plate with varying cut outs for
different core thickness.
Buckling analysis for uniaxial loads is done for
the same sandwich plate as used in case study 2.
Non dimensional critical loads [ =λ ] are
tabulated in Table 6. From table 6, it is observed
that, for a particular cutout size, except 0.1mX
0.1m, buckling load increases with decrease in
 SEC18: Paper No. 20180105

core thickness. For a particular support Hence physical test is necessary before using
condition, increasing sizes of cut-out at centre sandwich structure with cutouts. As it involves
gives more stiffness, so it is less vulnerable of huge cost and non-biodegradable wastes to
failure to vibration and buckling. perform the parametric studies, the numerical
tests and thereafter prototype tests should be
Table 6. Non-Dimensional Buckling Load for
different core thicknesses (top+core+bottom) mm performed for optimal benefits.
and cutout sizes
cutout 1+8+1 1.5+7+1.5 2+6+2 Reference:
size
[1] Kirchhoff GR. Uber das gleichgewicht und die
4.29 6.36 5.94
0.1x0.1 bewegung einer elastischen Scheibe. J Reine Angew
4.31 6.39 8.47 Math (Crelle’s J) 1850;40:51–88.
CCCC

0.2x0.2
7.72 11.46 15.19 [2] Mindlin RD. Influence of rotatory inertia and
0.3x0.3
shear on flexural motions of isotropic, elastic plates.
25.90 35.83 44.30
0.4x0.4 J Appl Mech 1951;18:31–8.
0.1x0.1
3.37 6.36 6.65 [3] K. S. Sai Ram and P. K. Sinha, “Hygrothermal
4.31 6.39 8.47 Effects on Free Vibration and buckling of Laminated
SSSS

0.2x0.2 Composite Plates”, Journal of Sound and Vibration,

7.72 11.46 12.79
0.3x0.3
22.30 19.49 14.27
0.4x0.4
The buckling shape of the sandwich plate with
0.4mX0.4m is plotted in Fig. 5.
Fig. 5 Buckling shape for the sandwich plate with
0.4mX0.4m cutout
4. CONCLUSION
It is observed from the above study that
presence of cutout greatly affects the dynamic
and buckling characteristics of sandwich plate.
Presence of different angle ply orientation also
modifies the behaviour. More the angle value
less is the increase in natural frequency of the
structure. Though this change has a little effect
on the critical buckling load for biaxial loading.
The natural frequency also increases with
increase in cutout size. The behaviour of
0.1mX0.1m cutout plate is a little different than
other cutout sizes. The ratio of stiffness and
mass of the structure plays a vital role in
determining its dynamic nature. Also the
stability of structure increases with increase in
cutout size and reduced core thickness.
1992.
[4] Ashwini Kumar, R.P. Shrivastava, Free vibration
of square laminates with delamina tion around a
central cutout using HSDT. Composite Structures
70(2005) 317333doi:10.1016
j.compstruct.2004.08.040
[5]T. Kant and K. Swaminathan. Free vibration of
isotropic, orthotropic, and multilayer plates based on
higher
[6] S. K. Singh and A. Chakrabarti “Buckling
analysis of laminated composite plates using an
efficient C 0 FE model”. Latin American Journal
of Solids and Structures 1(2012) 1 – 13
[7] H.R. Ovesy, J. Fazilati ; Buckling and free
vibration finite strip analysis of composite plates
with cutout based on two different modeling
approaches. Composite Structures 94 (2012) 1250–
1258, doi:10.1016/j.compstruct.2011.11.009
[8] Shivakumar K. N.“Processing and properties of a
lightweight fire resistant core material for sandwich
structures” Journal of Advanced
[9]Yang P. C., Norris C. H., and Stavsky Y., “Elastic
Wave Propagation in Heterogeneous Plates”,
International Journal of Solids and Structures, 2,
665-684,1966. order refined theories. J. Sound Vib,
24:319–327, 2001.
[10] C.H. Thai et al. Analysis of laminated composite
plates using higher-order shear deformation plate
theory and node-based smoothed discrete shear gap
method/ Applied Mathematical Modelling 36 (2012)
5657–5677.