Experimental Analysis of Composite Sandwich Plates Buckling with Lozenge Core Using the Vibration Correlation Technique

Currently, composite structures have many applications in various industries including aerospace, automotive, marine, and petrochemicals. In most of these applications, the structure is under dynamic and static loads and it can cause buckling, vibration, and fatigue. Therefore, the static and dynamic analysis of these structures is essential in order to understand their characteristics, including buckling, natural frequency, and the shape of vibrating modes. One of the most important non-destructive methods for predicting the buckling load of the structure is the vibrational correlation technique (VCT), which is based on frequency variations with the axial load. In this study, an experimental study of the buckling load of composite sandwich plates with lozenge core has been investigated. The hand lay-up method has been used for fabrication of the composite sandwich plates. One of the specimens was used for the modal test. In order to verify the results of the VCT, the buckling load of four specimens was calculated by the experimental buckling test. The error of VCT was 2.1 %. Hence, the efficiency of the VCT for composite sandwich plates with lattice core was confirmed. Also, by investigating the effect of applied load percentage on the accuracy of the VCT, it was found that for the applied load of more than 63% of the buckling load, the accuracy of prediction of the vibrational correlation technique is acceptable.