Experimental and finite element studies on free vibration of skew plates

The present paper deals with the experimental and finite element studies carried out on free vibration of isotropic and laminated composite skew plates. The natural frequencies were determined using CQUAD8 finite ele- ment of MSC/NASTRAN and comparison made between the experimental values and the finite element solution. The effects of the skew angle and aspect ratio on the nat- ural frequencies of isotropic skew plates were studied. The effects of skew angle, aspect ratio, fiber orientation angle and laminate stacking sequence (keeping total number of layers in the laminate constant) on the natural frequencies of antisymmetric laminated composite skew plates were also studied. The experimental values of the natural fre- quencies are in good agreement with the finite element solution. The natural frequencies generally increase with an increase in the skew angle for any given value of aspect ratio. List of symbols a Plate length b Plate width t Plate thickness NL Number of layers in the laminate E Modulus of elasticity of the material of isotropic plate E1 Young's modulus of the lamina in the longitudinal direction E2 Young's modulus of the lamina in the transverse direction