Effect of Torsion and Warping on the Free Vibration of Sandwich Beams

The problem on free vibrations of wide sandwich beams is tackled in this paper. Torsional and warping effects in addition to flexure are included in the formulation of the dynamic problem. In order to show the effects of bending-torsion coupling and warping on the natural frequencies and the corresponding vibration modes, three cases are considered. First, the warping and torsion effects are neglected, second, the effect of warping on the coupling terms is neglected, and third, the effect of warping on the coupling terms is included. The viscoelastic core is modeled by elastic translational and rotational springs. The finite-difference method is used to solve the partial differential equations of motion with different boundary conditions for the top and bottom layers. Results for different materials, fiber orientations, depth-to-width ratios, and boundary conditions are found. The natural frequencies and the corresponding vibration modes obtained are in a good agreement with those cited in the literature. If the bending-torsion coupling is pronounced, the inclusion of warping affects the natural frequency considerably.__________Russian translation published in Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 163–176, April–May, 2005.