Determination of the physicomechanical characteristics of viscoelastic materials in orthotropic and isotropic layers from the propagation velocities and damping constants of longitudinal and shear vibrations

The author examines the propagation of longitudinal and shear waves in viscoelastic orthotropic and isotropic layers. Relations are obtained for determining the elastic constants and the real and imaginary parts of the complex moduli and Poisson's ratios in orthotropic and isotropic layers from the propagation velocities and damping constants of longitudinal and shear vibrations.Mekhanika Polimerov, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 161–166, 1967     

Application of a refined theory of torsional vibrations to the calculation of natural frequencies and damping coefficients of orthotropic composite cantilever rods

For calculating the natural complex frequencies of torsional vibrations of rectangular orthotropic composite cantilever rods, a theory taking into account the normal stresses and inertial forces acting in the axial direction is employed. The results obtained are compared with those found by using the classical theory of torsional vibrations of rods, the theory of vibrations of thin orthotropic plates, and the FEM. It is found that the difference between the natural frequencies given by the classical and refined theories depends on relations between geometrical sizes of a rod and between its axial elastic modulus and shear moduli, and on the number of the mode of torsional vibrations.     

A Technique for Determining the Elastic and Dissipative Properties of Orthotropic Composites in Shear

A new method is presented for the characterization of three principal complex shear moduli of linear viscoelastic orthotropic materials, which is based on the measurement of complex torsional vibration frequencies of three rods of rectangular cross section. The rod-type test specimens are cut out from a composite plate along the principal material axes in the reinforcement plane. It is shown that the torsional stiffness of an elastic rod can be calculated not only by means of the Saint-Venant torsion theory, but also using a relationship obtained from the Reissner-Mindlin theory of plates. The transfer to a viscoelastic model of the material with complex moduli is realized with the help of the correspondence principle. By applying a numerical sensitivity analysis of natural frequencies to the shear moduli, the advisable width-to-thickness ratios of the specimens are found. As an illustration of data processing, the dynamic shear moduli and the loss factors for a GFRP fabric with an epoxy matrix are calculated. A comparison of the method offered with some known static and dynamic methods for determining the shear moduli of orthotropic materials is given.     

分析各向异性板的各向同性化样条积分方程法

本文分别按Reissner理论和Kirchhoff理论导出各向导性板的各向同性化控制方程,并论证了它们间在正交各向异性简支矩形板中的相通性.在用样条积分方程法求解中采用的只是些简单的各向同性板基本解,在稀疏剖分下也能有良好的计算精度.对双参数弹性地基上的板也只需在板上虚载的取值上附加某些项而不致增加多大的工作量.     

Torsional vibrations and dispersion of torsional waves in orthotropic composite rods

The Barr’s refined theory of torsional vibrations of isotropic rods of noncircular cross section is generalized for an orthotropic material. An analysis of natural frequencies of torsional vibration of free-free orthotropic prismatic rods of rectangular cross section is carried out with the help of an exact solution of the frequency equation. For orthotropic CFRP and GFRP rods, the improved theory, which takes into account the normal stresses and inertia forces in the axial direction, in some cases, predicts a noticeable raise in the natural frequencies compared with those following from the Saint-Venant classical theory. A good agreement is obtained between the experimental and calculated values of natural frequencies of torsional vibrations of rectangular quartz and fiber glass rods. The dispersion of torsional waves in an orthotropic quasi-homogeneous rod is considered. __________ Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 44, No. 2, pp. 165–182, March–April, 2008.     

Coupled damping vibrations of composite structures

This paper summarizes the results of a series of papers on developing methods for deter-mining elastic-dissipative characteristics of polymer composite materials (PCM) and predicting the corresponding dynamical responses from structures. For a prismatic anisotropic bar which is arbitrarily oriented with respect to the axes of elastic symmetry of an orthotropic plate, a mathematical model and a method for solving the problem of damping bending-torsional vibrations are developed. The interaction between the vibration modes of a composite bar is examined. Basic provisions of an iterative method for determining elastic and dissipative characteristics of PCM are formulated. Mathematical models of damping vibrations of fibrous composite thin-walled bars and plates are developed, and a two-stage method for solving the resulting complex eigenvalue problems is put for-ward. The effect of the composition and the reinforcement structure on the eigenfrequencies and the coefficients of mechanical losses of the structures in question is discussed. Controlability of the values of resonance frequencies and the coefficients of the mechanical losses due to variation of the degree of anisotropy of fiber materials and the degree of inhomogeneity of the structure over thickness has been demonstrated. The widely used method of potential energy of eigenforms is shown as being capable of providing correct values of the coefficients of mechanical losses only up to η = 0.02–0.03, resulting in significant errors for higher dissipative characteristics of composite structures. For the method presented, examples of practical implementation in developing vibration absorptive composite structures are given.     

Various methods of determining the natural frequencies and damping of composite cantilever plates. 3. The Ritz method

The Ritz method was used to determine the frequencies and forms of free vibrations of rectangular cantilever plates made of anisotropic laminated composites. Orthogonal Jacobi and Legendre polynomials were used as coordinate functions. The results of the calculations are in good agreement with the published experimental and calculated data of other authors for plates made of boron and carbon fiber reinforced plastics with different angles of reinforcement of unidirectional layers and different sequence of placing the layers, and also of isotropic plates. The dissipative characteristics in vibrations were determined on the basis of the concept of complex moduli. The solution of the frequency equation with complex coefficients yields a complex frequency; the loss factors are determined from the ratio of the imaginary component of the complex frequency to the real component. For plates of unidirectionally reinforced carbon fiber plastic with different relative length a detailed analysis of the influence of the angle of reinforcement on the interaction and frequency transformation and on the loss factor was carried out. The article shows that the loss factor of a plate depends substantially on the type of vibration mode: bending or torsional. It also examines the asymptotics of the loss factors of plates when their length is increased, and it notes that the binomial model of deformation leads to a noticeable error in the calculation of the loss factor of long plates when the angle of reinforcement lies in the range 20°<<70°.For Communication 2, see [1].Institute of Engineering Science of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia. St. Petersburg State University, Russia. Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 215–225, March–April, 1997.     

Various methods of determining the natural frequencies and damping of composite cantilever plates. 1. Exact solution for the binomial model of deformation

On the basis of the classical theory of thin anisotropic laminated plates the article analyzes the free vibrations of rectangular cantilever plates made of fibrous composites. The application of Kantorovich's method for the binomial representation of the shape of the elastic surface of a plate yielded for two unknown functions a system of two connected differential equations and the corresponding boundary conditions at the place of constraint and at the free edge. The exact solution for the frequencies and forms of the free vibrations was found with the use of Laplace transformation with respect to the space variable. The magnitudes of several first dimensionless frequencies of the bending and torsional vibrations of the plate were calculated for a wide range of change of two dimensionless complexes, with the dimensions of the plate and the anisotropy of the elastic properties of the material taken into account. The article shows that with torsional vibrations the warping constraint at the fixed end explains the apparent dependence of the shear modulus of the composite on the length of the specimen that had been discovered earlier on in experiments with a torsional pendulum. It examines the interaction and transformation of the second bending mode and of the first torsional mode of the vibrations. It analyzes the asymptotics of the dimensionless frequencies when the length of the plate is increased, and it shows that taking into account the bending-torsion interaction in strongly anisotropic materials type unidirectional carbon reinforced plastic can reduce substantially the frequencies of the bending vibrations but has no effect (within the framework of the binomial model) on the frequencies of the torsional vibrations.Institute of Engineering Science Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia. St. Petersburg State University, Russia. Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 32, No. 6, pp. 759–769, November–December, 1996.     

Application of the resonance method for determining the elastic and dissipative properties of an orthotropic polymer composite

Experimentally determined resonant frequencies and damping of flexural and torsional vibrations of rod-type rectangular test specimens made of an orthotropic GFRP fabric with different ratios of cross-sectional sizes are used for calculating six principal complex elastic and shear moduli. The application of the classical theories of flexural and torsional vibrations, the theory of flexural vibrations of a Timoshenko beam, and a refined theory of torsional vibrations of free-free orthotropic rods is analyzed.     

Natural vibrations of composite viscoelastic cylinders

Free damping spatial and axisymmetrical vibrations of short cylinders consisting of elastic and viscoelastic layers are considered. A numerical study is made of the dependence of natural frequencies and damping coefficients on the ratio of geometric cylinders.Translated from Dinamicheskie Sistemy, No. 5, pp. 55–58, 1986.     

Effect of random irregularities of the creep of reinforced layered plastics

The authors investigate the creep of inhomogeneous materials consisting of a large number of stiff orthotropic elastic layers alternating with layers of linear isotropic viscoelastic material. The elastic layers are assumed to be almost plane; the functions describing the irregularities (curvature) form a random field. The averaged characteristics of the medium are found together with the variation of the averaged displacements and strains in time. An analogous problem was previously considered in [1, 6] on the assumption that the binder layers are elastic. The present paper is based on the equations of [1] and the elastic-viscoelastic correspondence principle [4]. When the correlation scales of the irregularities are small as compared with the dimensions of the body and the characteristic distances over which the averaged parameters of the stress-strain state vary appreciably is considered in detail. A relation is established between the creep functions for simple cases of the state of stress and the parameters characterizing the properties of the components, the properties of the random field of initial irregularities, etc. The development of perturbations with different wave numbers is investigated. The theory is used to describe the creep of reinforced layered plastics.Mekhanika Polimerov, Vol. 2, No. 5, pp. 755–762, 1966     

Extensional and flexural modes of Rayleigh–Lamb wave in an orthotropic thermoelastic layer lying over a viscoelastic half-space

In this article the characteristics of the extensional and flexural modes, propagating in a thermoelastic orthotropic layer lying over a viscoelastic half-space, are analyzed. The complete analysis is carried out in the framework of a thermodynamically consistent hyperbolic type heat conduction model without energy dissipation. The normal-mode-analysis is adopted and a general form of dispersive equation is derived for an anisotropic thermoelastic layered medium. A prominent distinction with the isotropic elastic solids is observed in the symmetric as well as anti-symmetric modes of dispersion curves. In turn, such deformation reshapes the wave propagation while the deformation stiffening changes significantly the phase velocities of the wave till the acoustic radiation stresses are balanced by elastic stresses in the current configuration of the hyperelastic medium.     

Eigen‐frequencies in thin elastic 3‐D domains and Reissner–Mindlin plate models

The eigen‐frequencies of elastic three‐dimensional thin plates are addressed and compared to the eigen‐frequencies of two‐dimensional Reissner–Mindlin plate models obtained by dimension reduction. The qualitative mathematical analysis is supported by quantitative numerical data obtained by the p‐version finite element method. The mathematical analysis establishes an asymptotic expansion for the eigen‐frequencies in power series of the thickness parameter. Such results are new for orthotropic materials and for the Reissner–Mindlin model. The 3‐D and R–M asymptotics have a common first term but differ in their second terms. Numerical experiments for clamped plates show that for isotropic materials and relatively thin plates the Reissner–Mindlin eigen‐frequencies provide a good approximation to the three‐dimensional eigen‐frequencies. However, for some anisotropic materials this is no longer the case, and relative errors of the order of 30 per cent are obtained even for relatively thin plates. Moreover, we showed that no shear correction factor is known to be optimal in the sense that it provides the best approximation of the R–M eigen‐frequencies to their 3‐D counterparts uniformly (for all relevant thicknesses range). Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Application of the Haar wavelet-based discretization technique to problems of orthotropic plates and shells

The Haar wavelet discretization technique for solving the elastic bending problems of orthotropic plates and shells is proposed. Free transverse vibrations of orthotropic rectangular plates with a variable thickness in one direction are considered as a model problem. In the case of constant plate thickness, the numerical results are validated by comparing them with an exact solution. The results obtained are found to be in good agreement with those available in the literature.     

Cyclic Creep of Polymers and Polymer-Matrix Composites

The paper provides a state-of-the-art review of the current understanding regarding the long-term response of polymer-matrix composites subjected to cyclic loading conditions. Typically, under such conditions, the behavior of polymeric systems is characterized by much higher creep rates than those observed in the cases of static loading. In this paper, research accomplishments in the subject area are discussed. New experimental results are presented regarding the cyclic-creep response of a composite system consisting of a thin-film piezoelectric polymer polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) with thin metallic layers deposited on both surfaces of the polymer. This composite was tested under the conditions of tensile static stresses with superimposed sinusoidal oscillations. As a result, considerable acceleration of creep rates has been recorded as the mean stresses, vibration amplitudes, and frequencies of oscillations tended to increase. These effects were observed even within the linear viscoelastic deformation range at room temperature; however, the acceleration of cyclic-creep rates tended to decrease below the freezing temperature. In general, as indicated in the conclusion, the problem of cyclic creep in polymeric systems is far from being well understood and requires further studies.     

Multifibre polymer composites: Prediction of deformation and thermophysical properties

Conclusions A theoretical and experimental investigation was carried out to examine the possibilities of a structural approach for prediction of elastic constants, creep functions and thermophysical characteristics of hybrid polymer composites reinforced with anisotropic fibres of several types. The theoretical solutions were obtained by generalizing the self-consistent method for the case of a three phase model. The effects of brittle fibre breakdown under tension in the direction of reinforcement of a unidirectional hybrid composite were studied under conditions of a short-term loading and a long-term creep. It has been shown that a creep of viscoelastic fibres plays a principal role in creep of the hybrid composite. It is just this creep that significantly increases the fibre damage during creep of the composite.A variant of the solution has been proposed for predicting the thermorheologically complex behavior of hybrid composites containing not only elastic but also viscoelastic thermorheologically simple components with different temperature-time shift factors. The peculiarities of thermal expansion of hybrid composites and the possibilities for a purposeful control of thermal expansion coefficients by hybridization were studied. The considered thermal interval included a region of transition of the polymer matrix from a glass state into a viscoelastic one.The control tests were performed for specimens of organic/glass, organic/carbon, glass/carbon and organic/boron polymer composites with different ratios of fibre volume contents. On the whole, the obtained accuracy of predicting the characteristics of the examined hybrid composites may be considered as acceptable for engineering applications.Published in Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 30, No. 3, pp. 299–313, May–June, 1994.     

The vibrations of a thin elastic orthotropic circular cylindrical shell with free and hinged edges

The problem of the existence of natural oscillations of a thin elastic orthotropic circular closed cylindrical shell with free and hinge-mounted ends and of an open cylindrical shell with free and hinge-mounted edges, when the two boundary generatrices are hinge-mounted is investigated. Dispersion equations and asymptotic formulae for finding the natural frequencies of possible vibration modes are obtained using the system of equations corresponding to the classical theory of orthotropic cylindrical shells. A mechanism is proposed by means of which the vibrations can be separated into possible types. Approximate values of the dimensionless characteristic of the natural frequency and the attenuation characteristic of the corresponding vibration modes are obtained using the examples of closed and open orthotropic cylindrical shells of different lengths.     

Nonlinear flexural vibrations of composite shallow open shells

This paper addresses geometrically nonlinear flexural vibrations of open doubly curved shallow shells composed of three thick isotropic layers. The layers are perfectly bonded, and thickness and linear elastic properties of the outer layers are symmetrically arranged with respect to the middle surface. The outer layers and the central layer may exhibit extremely different elastic moduli with a common Poisson's ratio ν. The considered shell structures of polygonal planform are hard hinged supported with the edges fully restraint against displacements in any direction. The kinematic field equations are formulated by layerwise application of a first order shear deformation theory. A modification of Berger's theory is employed to model the nonlinear characteristics of the structural response. The continuity of the transverse shear stress across the interfaces is specified according to Hooke's law, and subsequently the equations of motion of this higher order problem can be derived in analogy to a homogeneous single-layer shear deformable shallow shell. (© 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Investigation of the natural vibrations of plates made of composite materials with the help of the finite-element method

The modes and frequencies of small natural vibrations in a cavity of thin plates are investigated on the basis of the method of finite elements in displacements. The effect of the rigidity characteristics of a material on the natural frequencies and modes of vibrations of flat cantilever vanes whose tapered edge is restrained is studied. An example is given of the use of the finite-element method to determine the natural vibrations of an orthotropic plate in the shape of an airplane wing. Quadrangular and modified triangular bending finite elements are used to simulate a continuous system. A mass-element matrix is constructed on the basis of a four-term ("contracted") polynomial determining the deflection that permits a significant reduction of the order of the solving system.Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, No. 2, pp. 284–288, March–April, 1976.     

The three-dimensional problem of the axisymmetric deformation of an orthotropic spherical layer

A 3D problem of the deformation of an elastic orthotropic spherical layer that is subjected to normal pressure applied to its outer and inner surfaces is analyzed. Asymptotic first-order approximation solutions are obtained for a slightly orthotropic layer for which the elastic moduli in the meridional and circumferential directions have similar values. The solutions that are obtained are used for analyzing the scleral shell under intraocular pressure; however, they can also be used for solving the inverse problem of analyzing the stress–strain state of a human eye during intravitreal injections. The influence that the meridional and circumferential elastic moduli have on the magnitudes of changes in the relative layer thickness and in the length of the anteroposterior eye axis due to elevated intraocular pressure is studied.