Dynamic Analysis of Unbalanced Anisotropic Sandwich Plates

The modified stiffness method of unbalanced anisotropic sandwich plates is extended and applied to the dynamic analysis of sandwich plates consisting of an orthotropic core and two equal thickness anisotropic face plates. The formulation allows for the dynamic analysis of certain types of sandwich plates that were not amenable to rigorous solutions due to the existence of anisotropic coupling stiffnesses, such as those with inbalanced angle-ply faces. The method is independent of the boundary conditions and can be combined with a variety of analysis techniques. Using a series solution, results are generated for simply-supported sandwich plates with unbalanced cross-ply and angle-ply face plates. In addition, the effect of coupling in the static and dynamic responses is presented. Coupling can influence the structural response significantly.