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A nondestructive evaluation technique established on the basis of a global minimization method is presented for the system parameters identification of flexibly supported rectangular laminated composite sandwich plates using measured natural frequencies of the sandwich plates. In this study, the first eight natural frequencies extracted from impulsive vibration testing data are used to identify the system parameters of the flexibly supported sandwich plates. In the identification process, the trial system parameters are used in the Rayleigh-Ritz method to predict the theoretical natural frequencies of the sandwich plate, a frequency discrepancy function is established to measure the sum of the squared differences between the experimental and theoretical predictions of the natural frequencies, and the global minimization method is used to search for the best estimates of the system parameters by making the frequency discrepancy function a global minimum. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed technique in identifying the system parameters of several flexibly supported sandwich plates made of different face and core materials are studied via both theoretical and experimental approaches. The reasonably good results obtained in this study have demonstrated the applicability of the proposed technique.

Free vibration of symmetrically laminated composite sandwich plates with elastic edge restraints is studied via the Rayleigh-Ritz approach. The proposed Rayleigh--Ritz method is constructed on the basis of the layer-wise linear displacement theory. The accuracy of the method in predicting natural frequencies of composite sandwich plates with different boundary conditions is verified by the results reported in the literature or the experimental data obtained in this study. The proposed method is then applied to the material constant identification of free composite sandwich plates using the first six theoretical natural frequencies of the plates. In the identification process, trial material constants are used in the present method to predict the theoretical natural frequencies, a frequency discrepancy function is established to measure the sum of the squared differences between the experimental and theoretical natural frequencies, and a stochastic global minimization algorithm is used to search for the best estimates of the material constants by making the frequency discrepancy function a global minimum. Applications of the material constant identification technique are demonstrated by means of several examples. CE Database subject headings: Composite materials; Sandwich panels; Plates; Vibration; Laminates.

A method is presented for identification of elastic constants for composite materials using three measured strains of a single angle-ply laminate subjected to tensile testing. In the proposed method, the trial material constants of the angle-ply laminate are used to predict the corresponding strains in the laminate. An error function is established to measure the difference between the experimental and theoretical predictions of the strains. The identification of material constants is then formulated as a constrained minimization problem in which the material constants are determined to make the error function a global minimum. The accuracy and capability of the proposed method are demonstrated by means of a number of examples of the identification of material constants of angle-ply laminates with different lay-ups. Experimental data obtained from static tensile tests of several angle-ply laminates are used to identify the material constants of the laminates. The excellent results obtained in the experimental investigation have validated the applicability of the proposed method. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9399(2006)132:11(1187) CE Database subject headings: Material properties; Identification; Laminate; Optimization; Composite materials; Experimentation.

A nondestructive evaluation technique established on the basis of a global minimization method is presented for the system identification of laminated composite plates partially restrained by elastic edge supports. Six natural frequencies extracted from the vibration data of the flexibly restrained plate are used to identify the system parameters of the plate. In the identification process, the trial system parameters are used in the Rayleigh--Ritz method to predict the theoretical natural frequencies of the plate, an error function is established to measure the sum of the differences between the experimental and theoretical predictions of the natural frequencies, and the global minimization method is used to search for the best estimates of the parameters by making the error function a global minimum. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed technique in identifying the parameters of several flexibly supported plates made of different composite materials are studied via both theoretical and experimental approaches. The excellent results obtained in this study have validated the applicability of the proposed technique. CE Database subject headings: Composite materials; Plates; Laminates; Parameters; Natural frequency.

The authors examine methods of testing and forecasting failure probabilities of laminated composite plates. Topics include lamina strengths, first-ply load failures, and limited state equations.

Analytical and experimental techniques were employed to analyze the fracture and fatigue behaviors of cracked plates repaired with a single-sided composite patch. The research revealed that both plate and patch thicknesses may play significant roles on fatigue life of the cracked plate with an asymmetric repair. The finite element method is insufficient to predict the actual behavior of the fracture surface of a fatigue crack in a plate with single-sided repair.

A study was conducted on fatigue behavior of aluminum panels containing an edge crack repaired with bonded composite patches. A method for determining stress intensity factor and fatigue life of the repaired structures is presented. The findings indicate that the proposed method can yield good predictions of stress intensity factor and fatigue life of cracked plates repaired with bonded composite patches. Moreover, the results indicate the existence of an optimum patch thickness beyond which the beneficial effects stop increasing.

A constrained global optimization technique facilitates the study of the minimum weight design of laminated composite plates. A finite element method, using a common failure criterion, determines the strength of a laminated plate. The technique allows the estimation of the optimal layer group parameters of the laminated plate. Examples demonstrate the applications of the global optimal design method and help to examine the effects of the aspect ratio and boundary conditions of the design parameters. Failure tests on laminates prove that the method is capable of achieving global optima.

A method for investigating the dynamic response of shear deformable laminated composite plates subject to low-speed impact is presented. The equations of motion of the impactor and the plate are derived via a virtual work approach. The contact force between the impactor and the plate is calculated by using an experimentally established contact law. The effects of existing in-plane forces, plate aspect ratio, length-to-thickness ratio, fiber angles, and number of layer groups on the contact force with or without the consideration of ply failure are studied. Optimal fiber angles and number of layer groups for angle-ply plates with maximum first-ply failure impact velocity are determined based on the maximum stress criterion.

The optimal lamination arrangements of laminated composite plates with maximum shear buckling loads are studied via a multi-start global optimization technique. A previously proposed shear deformable finite element is used to evaluate the positive and negative shear buckling loads of lami nated composite plates in the optimal design process. Optimal lay-ups of thin as well as moderately thick composite plates with global maximum positive or negative shear buckling loads are determined utilizing the multi-start global optimal design technique. A number of examples of the optimal shear buckling design of symmetrically and antisymmetrically laminated composite plates with various material properties, length-to-thickness ratios, aspect ratios and different numbers of layer groups are given to illustrate the trends of optimal layer orientations of the plates. Since the existence of in-plane axial forces is possible, the effects of axial compressive load on the optimal layer orientations for maximum shear buckling load are also investigated.

A shear deformable finite element is developed for the analysis of thick laminated composite plates. The finite element formulation is based on Mindlin's plate theory in which shear correction factors are derived from the exact expressions for orthotropic materials. The element is used to solve a variety of problems on deflection, stress distribution, natural frequency and buckling of laminated composite plates. The effects of material properties, plate aspect ratio, length-to-thickness ratio, number of layers and lamination angle on the mechanical behaviors of laminated composite plates are investigated. Optimal lamination arrangements of layers for laminated composite plates of particular applications are determined.

A constrained minimization method is presented for the identification of elastic constants of shear deformable laminated composite plates. Strains and/or displacements obtained from static testing of laminated composite plates are used in the proposed method to identify the elastic constants of the plates. In the identification process, the trial elastic constants of a laminated composite plate are used in a finite-element analysis to predict the swains and displacements of the plate. An error function is established to measure the differences between the experimental and theoretical predictions of strains and/or displacements. A constrained minimization technique is used to minimize the error function and update the trial elastic constants. The best estimates of the elastic constants of the plate are then determined by subsequently reducing the size of the feasible region of the elastic constants and making the error function a global minimum. The accuracy and applications of the proposed method are demonstrated by means of a number of examples. A sensitivity analysis is also performed to study the effects of variations of experimental data on the accuracy of the identified elastic constants.