Prediction of natural frequencies of a sandwich panel using thick plate theory

ABSTRACT: The vibration of a sandwich panel with two identical isotropic facesheets and an orthotropic core was studied. The governing partial differential equation was de-rived using a variational principle. Linear shear theory was employed to describe the trans-verse deformation of the panel, and the rotational effect was taken into consideration. The natural frequencies of a rectangular sandwich panel can be predicted on the basis of the pro-posed analytical model. Results from the proposed model were compared with those from thin plate theory. The effects of the structural and material parameters such as core aniso-tropy, core density, and facesheet thickness on natural frequencies were discussed