Vibratory power transmission through coupled composite plates with joint compliance and damping

Abstract

This paper presents a wave-based, analytical method for the computation of power transfer coefficients (PTC) to evaluate vibratory power transmitted through a set of angled structural joints that connects an arbitrary number of composite plates. Each joint is only used to hold two adjacent plates together. The elastic wave motions and dispersion properties of the plate are calculated by considering shear deformation, rotary inertia, and material anisotropy. The joint is modeled with stiffness and damping in both translational and rotational directions, and the joint parameters are allowed to differ from one joint to another. The equilibrium conditions at the joint set are derived to solve for the complex amplitude of waves propagating away from it. From the PTCs computed for a particular angle of wave incidence at the junction, the diffuse-field PTCs are calculated using weighted integral of the incidence angle. A comparison with published numerical results for simpler configurations has been performed in order to validate some key aspects of the present analytical formulation. Several numerical examples of two coupled composite sandwich panels are considered to compute PTCs, through which it is clearly demonstrated that the joint compliance and damping as well as the transverse shear deformation and rotary inertia of composite sandwich panels influence the vibratory power transmission through coupled composite plates.