Free Vibration Analysis of a Honeycomb Sandwich Structure with Orthotropic Core

In this paper, an equivalent orthotropic model has been used to theoretically simulate a honeycomb sandwich structure with hexagon honeycomb core covered by face sheets on both sides. Free vibration analysis was carried out based on analytical and numerical methods, where an equivalent model was proposed with an orthotropic material for simply modelling the honeycomb sandwich panel. The analytical solution was determined theoretically based on first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT), while the numerical simulation was carried out by using finite element modelling in ANSYS. The used methods have been validated for dynamic stoichiometric modelling of honeycomb-shaped insulating plates. Hence, the results are promising as the proposed models are compatible with the experimental results of previous research and the analytical solution. The dynamic results showed that the geometric variables and material properties have significant effects on the dynamic behaviour of the honeycomb panel. it confirms that selecting an optimal design of the hexagon honeycomb cells would increase the structure’s natural frequency and thereby result in great enhancing of the overall stiffness of the sandwich panel.