Experimental Determination of Elastic Constant of Composite Materials Using Vibration Properties

Abstract

In this study, a correlation between an approximate analysis of beam vibration problem and experimental measurements of vibration property was achieved in an attempt to develop a simple and reliable experimental method for determining the elastic constant of materials as a non-destructive test. The analytical solution was based on Euler and Rayleigh beam models with simply supported boundary conditions, and the experimental work was based on Dunkerly's approach. Development of an existing test setup was done to be more suitable for beam specimens of composite materials. The present experimental measurements of the elastic constants were compared with published results and it is found that the proposed experimental work is provided acceptable and reliable measurements. The comparisons indicate errors in the measurements that are ranging between (3.1-12.7) % based on the Euler model and (0.87-4.6) % based on the Rayleigh model. Finally, a numerical solution to the problem based on the feedback of the present experimental results was developed using a computer package program called ANSYS. The numerical results reflected that the proposed experimental scheme is a simple, reliable, and accurate one.