Vibration analysis and optimization of sandwich composite with curvilinear fibers

The present paper develops a shell element based on the refined zigzag theory (RZT) and applies it to the vibration analysis and optimization problem of the composite sandwich plate composed of CFRP skins and soft-cores. The RZT accepts large differences in layer stiffness, and requires less calculation effort than the layer-wise or three-dimensional theories. Numerical results revealed that the present method predicts vibration characteristics of composite sandwich plates with soft-core accurately. Then, shapes of reinforcing fibers in CFRP composite skins are optimized to maximize fundamental frequencies. As an optimizer, the particle swarm optimization (PSO) approach is employed since curvilinear fiber shapes are defined by continuous design variables. Obtained results showed that the composite sandwich with optimum curvilinear fiber shapes indicates higher fundamental frequencies compared with straight fibers.