Composite Structures 82 (2008) 609621

www.elsevier.com/locate/compstruct

Consistent higher-order free vibration analysis of composite

sandwich plates
Tongan Wang a, Vladimir Sokolinsky b, Shankar Rajaram a, Steven R. Nutt a,*

a
Gill Foundation, Composites Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, United States
b
Alpha STAR Corporation, 5199 East Pacic Coast Highway, Suite 410, Long Beach, CA 90804, United States

Available online 28 February 2007

Abstract

The consistent higher-order dynamic formulation for foam-type (soft) core sandwich beams was extended to the case of composite
sandwich plates. Eight dynamic governing equations and the corresponding boundary conditions were derived through the application
of Hamiltons principle. The extended formulation was applied to the free vibration analysis of soft-core and honeycomb-core sandwich
plates with anti-symmetric and symmetric lay-ups. The vibration results for the thin and thick composite sandwich plates obtained using
the extended formulation were consistent with the predictions of the higher order mixed layerwise theory for laminated and sandwich
plates. To simplify the formulation for the case of symmetric sandwich plates, the general dynamic formulation was decoupled into
two systems of equations representing symmetric and anti-symmetric vibrations. The numerical study demonstrates the importance of
the present formulation for the prediction of higher mode vibration response of composite sandwich plates.
 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Vibration; Sandwich; Higher-order; Plates; Symmetric

1. Introduction
The free vibrations of composite sandwich plates have
been extensively studied using classical analytical formula-
tions [13], nite element analyses based on rst- and
higher-order shear deformation theories [47], and the
spline nite point method (SFPM) [8]. In the majority
of these studies, the sandwich core is assumed to be
incompressible in the vertical direction. This assumption
is practically accurate only for the vibration analysis of
sandwich plates with a honeycomb core. However, in
the case of a exible sandwich core (for example, a foam
core), this assumption will preclude modeling of the sym-
metric vibration modes where the two face sheets move
out-of-phase. (For structural sandwich panels, the core
is considered as vertically exible when the ratio of
*
Corresponding author. Address: School of Engineering, MCGF
Composites Centre, University of Southern California, Los Angelas, CA
90089-0241, United States. Tel.: +1 213 740 1634; fax: +1 213 740 7797.
E-mail address: nutt@usc.edu (S.R. Nutt).
Youngs moduli of the face sheets to the core lies between
500 and 1000.) Furthermore, modeling of a exible sand-
wich core with the aid of general-purpose commercial
nite element software requires the use of 3-D solid ele-
ments, which consumes signicant computational
resources (memory and cpu time). The higher-order sand-
wich panel theory (HSAPT) [9] was derived to model the
behavior of sandwich plates with a exible core. This
model is based on the nonlinear through-the-thickness
displacement eld in the core in both longitudinal and
vertical directions. However, the corresponding accelera-
tion eld in the core is assumed to vary linearly with
height, which introduces inconsistency in the formulation.
For sandwich beams, this inconsistency has been over-
come in the recently developed formulation [10] that
accounts for a nonlinear acceleration eld in the core.
Recently, a higher order mixed layerwise theory for lam-
inated and sandwich plates was developed and described
[11]. This theory accounts for nonlinear through-the-thick-
ness distributions of the displacement eld and continuity
of the displacements and stresses at the interfaces between

0263-8223/$ - see front matter  2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.compstruct.2007.02.009
610 T. Wang et al. / Composite Structures 82 (2008) 609621

the adjacent layers. The vibration results of the mixed the-

ory [11] were shown to be in good agreement with those
obtained by the three-dimensional elasticity solutions of
Srinivas and Rao [12].
In the present work, the one-dimensional beam formula-
tion described in Ref. [10] is generalized to the two-dimen-
sional plate analysis. The main dierence between the
present approach and the higher order mixed formulation
in Ref. [11] is that in the latter case, the assumed
through-the-thickness displacement eld is used, whereas
in the former, non-linear displacement eld in the core is
derived based on well-dened physical assumptions.
In what follows, a consistent free vibration formulation
for composite sandwich plates is developed in terms of the
system of governing partial dierential equations and the
corresponding boundary conditions. The derived formula-
tion is applied to the vibration analysis of soft-core and
honeycomb-core sandwich plates with anti-symmetric and
symmetric lay-ups. Excellent agreement between the calcu-
lated vibration response for the thin and thick composite
sandwich plates and the results of the higher order mixed
layerwise theory in Ref. [11] is demonstrated. For the case
of symmetric sandwich plates, simplication is achieved
through the decoupling of the general formulation into
two independent systems of equations representing sym-
metric and anti-symmetric motions. The numerical study
of the free vibration response of composite sandwich plates
based on the derived formulation follows next. Dierences
between the vibration responses of the soft-core sandwich
Fig. 1. Sandwich plate conventions: (a) geometry, coordinate systems and
plates with anti-symmetric and symmetric composite lay- displacement functions of the sandwich plate and (b) stress eld in the
ups are studied and discussed. The eect of honeycomb core.
core modulus on the symmetric vibration response of sand-
wich plates with isotropic face sheets is investigated. the cross section may not remain planar. The interface lay-
Finally, the importance of the present formulation for the ers between the face sheets and the core are assumed to pro-
prediction of higher-frequency vibration response is dis- vide perfect continuity of the deformations at the interfaces.
cussed and conclusions are drawn. The acceleration elds of the face sheets are assumed to
vary linearly with height, whereas the acceleration eld of
2. Mathematical formulation the compressible core varies nonlinearly with height in
the plane and out-of-plane directions. Thus, the dynamic
2.1. Assumptions elds in the face sheets and core are consistent with the cor-
responding static patterns as normally assumed in dynamic
The present formulation is concerned with the linear analyses [13].
vibration analysis of sandwich plates (see Fig. 1). The face
sheets of a sandwich plate are assumed to behave as Kirch- 2.2. Equations of motion
ho thin plates with negligible shear deformations. The
vertically compressible core layer is considered as an anti- The governing dierential equations and the corre-
plane, three-dimensional elastic medium with orthotropic sponding boundary conditions are derived here through
out-of-plane shear properties [1]. Here, an antiplane the use of Hamiltons variational principle [14], namely,
assumption implies that the stresses in the core in planes Z t2
parallel to the face sheets are neglected, and only the out- dT  dV dt 0 1
t1
of-plane shear and normal stresses are accounted for in
the analysis. This assumption is nearly exact for a honey- where T is the kinetic energy and V is the strain energy of a
comb core, and is an appropriate approximation for an iso- sandwich plate; t is the time coordinate; and t1 and t2 are
tropic foam core, where the core material modulus is the values of the time coordinate at the beginning and
signicantly lower than the modulus of the face sheets end of the motion, respectively.
(see Section 1). Note that as a result of the compressibility The strain energy of the composite face sheets is given
of the core, the core height may change under loading and by [7]
 T. Wang et al. / Composite Structures 82 (2008) 609621 611

Z a Z b X 1 1 1 2 z2c 2zc  3c
VF Ai11 u20i;x Ai22 v20i;y Ai66 u0i;y v0i;x vc xc ; y c ;zc ; t sxzc;xy xc ; y c ; t syzc;yy xc ; y c ; t
2 2 2 12Ec
0 0 it;b
z2 zc
Ai12 u0i;x v0i;y Ai16 u0i;y v0i;x u0i;x Ai26 u0i;y v0i;x v0i;y c wt;y xc ; y c ;t  wb;y xc ; y c ;t syzc xc ; y c ;t
2c Gcy
 Bi11 u0i;x wi;xx  Bi22 v0i;y wi;yy  2Bi66 u0i;y v0i;x wt;xy 1
 zc wt;y xc ; y c ;t v0t xc ; y c ;t  d t wt;y xc ; y c ; t
 Bi12 v0i;y wi;xx u0i;x wi;yy  Bi16 u0i;y v0i;x wi;xx 2
6
 Bi26 u0i;y v0i;x wi;yy  2Bi16 u0i;x wi;xy  2Bi26 v0i;y wi;xy
zc zc  c
1 1 wc xc ; y c ;zc ; t  sxzc;x xc ;y c ; t syzc;y xc ; y c ;t
Di11 w2i;xx Di22 w2i;yy 2Di66 w2i;xy Di12 wi;xx 2Ec
2 2  wt xc ;y c ; t  wb xc ;y c ; t
2Di16 wi;xx wi;xy 2Di26 wi;yy wi;xy dxi dy i 2  zc wt xc ; y c ;t 7
c
where a and b are the in-plane dimensions of the sandwich
Here, Ec is the vertical Youngs modulus of the core, Gcx
plate; u0i xi ; y i ; t; v0i xi ; y i ; t, and wi xi ; y i ; t are the longitu-
and Gcy are the vertical shear moduli of the core, sxzc and
dinal, transverse and vertical unknown displacement func-
syzc are the shear stresses in the core, and c is the thickness
tions of the centroid line of the face sheets, respectively
of the core.
(i t; b); t and b refer to quantities aliated to top and bot-
The strain energy and kinetic energy of the transversely
tom face sheets, respectively; Aijk, Bijk, and Dijk i t; b; j,
exible core can be calculated from the displacements in
k 1; 2; 6) are the coecients of the stiness matrices A, B,
Eqs. (5)(7). The strain energy of the core reads
D in the forcestrain relations for the face sheets [7]; and
Z Z b" !#
the comma stands for dierentiation with respect to the spa- a
c3 Ec c s2xzc s2yzc
Vc sxzc;x syzc;y 2 wt  wb 2 dxc dy c
tial coordinate. 0 0 24Ec 2c 2 Gcx Gcy
The kinetic energy of the face sheets reads 8
Z b
Z a 
1 1 The expression for the kinetic energy of the core reads
TF qt d t u_ 20t v_ 20t w_ 2t qt d 3t w_ 2t;y w_ 2t;x dxt dy t
2 0 0 12 Z Z Z
Z Z   1 a b c
1 a b 1 Tc q u_ 2 v_ 2c w_ 2c dxc dy c dzc 9
qb d b u_ 20b v_ 20b w_ 2b qb d 3b w_ 2b;y w_ 2b;x dxb dy b 2 0 0 0 c c
2 0 0 12
3 where qc is the density of the core.
Eqs. (5)(7) account only for the compatibility between
where dt and db are the thicknesses of the upper and lower the top face sheet and the core. The compatibility condi-
face sheets, respectively; qt and qb are the densities of the tions at the lower interface are accounted for by
upper and lower face sheets, respectively; and the dot rep-
resents time dierentiation. 1
uc xc ; y c ; c; t u0b xc ; y c ; t d b wb;x xc ; y c ; t 10
As described in Section 2.1, the transversely exible core 2
is treated as a three-dimensional elastic medium with small 1
vc xc ; y c ; c; t v0b xc ; y c ; t d b wb;y xc ; y c ; t 11
deformations, where the core height may change under 2
loading, and the core cross-section does not remain planar The governing equations are then obtained from Eq. (1)
(nonlinear displacement eld in the core). The in-plane using the Lagrange multiplier method with the auxiliary
stresses in the core are neglected because of the negligible equations given in Eqs. (10) and (11). The Lagrange multi-
in-plane strength compared to the face sheets, which pliers can be shown to be the shear stresses in the core, sxzc
implies that and syzc [15]. The eight governing equations and corre-
rxxc ryyc sxyc 0 4 sponding boundary conditions are presented in Appendix
A.
where rxxc ; ryyc and sxyc are the in-plane normal and shear
stresses in the core. 2.3. Symmetric sandwich plate
For this case, the partial dierential equations describ-
ing the equilibrium in the core can be uncoupled and solved The majority of sandwich plates used in practical appli-
analytically for the longitudinal, transverse and vertical cations have symmetric cross-sections. Therefore, it is
displacements, and the resultant expressions are general- worthwhile to simplify the general formulation derived in
ized here to include the time parameter, as shown below. Section 2.2 for the symmetric case. For this purpose, the
z2c 2zc  3c general horizontal and vertical motions of the face sheets
uc xc ; y c ;zc ; t sxzc;xx xc ; y c ; t syzc;xy xc ; y c ;t
12Ec are represented as the superposition of the symmetric and
z2 zc anti-symmetric displacements (see Fig. 2)
c wt;x xc ;y c ; t  wb;x xc ; y c ; t sxzc xc ; y c ; t
2c Gcx u0i u  ~u 12
1
 zc wt;x xc ; y c ; t u0t xc ;y c ; t  d t wt;x xc ; y c ;t v0i v  ~v 13
2
5 wi w
~ w
 14
612 T. Wang et al. / Composite Structures 82 (2008) 609621
 
where i t; b stands for the top and bottom face sheets, z2c d
uc  ;x  zc
w  ;x u
w 17
respectively, the plus and minus signs are used for the c 2
upper and lower face sheets, respectively, and  u, v, w
 and  
z2 d
u, ~v, w
~ ~ denote the symmetric and anti-symmetric displace- vc c w  ;y  zc  ;y v
w 18
c 2
ments of the face sheets, respectively.  
Substitution of Eqs. (12)(14) into Eqs. (A1)(A34) 2zc
c 1 
w 
w 19
decouples the general formulation into two systems repre- c
senting symmetric and anti-symmetric motions. Note that Eqs. (17)(19) show that the tangential displacements in
this is possible only for symmetric composite face sheets, the core for symmetric motion are given by polynomials
in which case the stinesses Bijk vanish. The resulting equa- of the second order in the vertical coordinate zc, whereas
tions are given in Appendix B. the vertical displacements depend linearly on zc. Note par-
In the following, the displacement eld in the core ex- ticularly that neglecting the non-linear terms in Eqs. (17)
ible in the vertical direction, corresponding to symmetric and (18) will result in a tangential displacement eld for or-
and anti-symmetric vibrations, is derived. Substitution of dinary plates consistent with the Kircho assumptions.
the relations u0t u0b 
u and v0t v0b v, which charac- From Eq. (19), the vertical displacements of the core are
terize the symmetric response, into Eqs. (5)(7) yields seen to be the linear interpolation of the vertical displace-
c3 c ments of the face sheets.
sxzc;xx syzc;xy sxzc 0 15 Similarly, for the anti-symmetric motion, substitution of
12Ec Gcx
the relations u0t u0b ~u, v0t v0b ~v and w0t
c3   c
 sxzc;xy syzc;yy syzc 0 16 w0b w~ into Eqs. (5)(7) yields the following displacement
12Ec Gcy eld in the core:
These equations are satised for sxzc syzc 0. This is a 2z3c  3cz2c zc
mathematical manifestation of the fact that the symmetric ~uc sxzc;xx syzc;xy sxzc
12E Gcx
motion of the sandwich plate is characterized only by the  c 
d
expansion and compression of the core material, which  zc ~ ;x ~u
w 20
are caused by the out-of-phase vertical displacements of 2
the face sheets, in the absence of shear deformation. Note 2z3  3cz2c zc
~vc c sxzc;xy syzc;yy syzc
that Eqs. (B1)(B12), which describe the symmetric motion 12Ec Gcy
of a symmetric sandwich plate, do not contain the shear  
d
stress as an unknown function.  zc ~ ;y ~v
w 21
2
Substitution of the relations u0t u0b 
u, v0t v0b v
z2  czc
and sxzc syzc 0 into Eqs. (5)(7) produces the following ~c  c
w sxzc;x syzc;y w~ 22
displacement eld in the core for the case of symmetric 2Ec
motion Eqs. (20)(22) reveal that the non-linear behavior of the
core depends on the second-order derivatives of the shear
stress. Therefore, for harmonic motion, the inuence of
the non-linear terms on the response of the core will in-
crease with increasing frequency of the vibration modes
(see Section 4).
Finally, using the auxiliary Eqs. (10), (11) and Eqs. (5),
(6), the tangential displacements in the core can be
expressed in the form
 
z2 2z  3c c
~uc 2~
u s xzc  c d~
w ;x
c3 Gcx
 
z d
sxzc ~u  z ~ ;x
w 23
Gcx 2
 
z2 2z  3c c
~vc 2~
v s yzc  c d~
w ;y
c3 Gcy
 
z d
syzc ~v  z ~ ;y
w 24
Gcy 2

where the second-order derivatives of the shear stress in the

core have been eliminated.
Fig. 2. Vibration motions of a sandwich plate: (a) anti-symmetric Thus, the general formulation for the free vibrations of
(bending) and (b) symmetric (dilatational). symmetric soft-core sandwich plates with composite lami-
 T. Wang et al. / Composite Structures 82 (2008) 609621 613

nated face sheets has been decoupled into two formulations order mixed layerwise theory for laminated and sandwich
representing symmetric and anti-symmetric motions. The plates [11]. The material constants for graphite-epoxy
symmetric motion is represented by the three governing T300/934 composite face sheets and the isotropic core used
equations, Eqs. (B1)(B3), nine boundary conditions, in the calculations are given in Table 1. Note that the elas-
Eqs. (B4)(B12), and three equations describing the dis- tic moduli of the face sheets are given with respect to the
placements in the core, Eqs. (17)(19), in terms of u, v, material coordinates.
and w  . The anti-symmetric vibrations are represented by A comparison between the normalized natural
the ve governing equations, Eqs. (B13)(B17), 17 bound- frequencies, X, calculated using the present formulation
ary conditions, Eqs. (B18)(B34), and three equations for and the results of Ref. [11] is presented in Table 2. The nor-
the displacements of the core, Eqs. (20)(22), in terms of malized frequencies are given by the equation X xb2
1=2
~u, ~v, w
~ , sxzc and syzc. qt =E2 =H , where x is the natural frequency and H is
the total thickness of the sandwich plate. Table 2 demon-
3. Validation strates excellent agreement between the predictions based
on the present formulation and those in Ref. [11]. Note
For the free vibrations of a simply supported sandwich particularly that the close agreement between the two the-
plate, the boundary conditions in Eqs. (A.9)(A.34) are ories holds in a broad range of length-to-thickness ratios.
identically satised by the following harmonic functions This means that the present formulation can be successfully
[13]: used for the vibration analysis of both thin and thick soft-
mp
np
core sandwich plates.
u0t U t cos x sin y eixt 25 Note also that for each pair (m; n) (see Eqs. (25)(32)),
a
mp
b
np
there are eight natural frequencies with eight correspond-
u0b U b cos x sin y eixt 26 ing vibration modes. Physically, this represents various
mpa
npb
combinations of the displacement patterns of the face
v0t V t sin x cos y eixt 27 sheets and the core corresponding to the same pair of wave
a
mp
b
np

numbers.
v0b V b sin x cos y eixt 28
a
mp
b
np
Variations of the in-plane and vertical displacements
wt W t sin x sin y eixt 29 through the thickness of the sandwich plate under consider-
a
mp
b
np
ation vibrating at the fundamental frequency (m 1,
wb W b sin x sin y eixt 30
a
mp
b
np

sxzc Cx cos x sin y eixt 31 Table 2

a

mp b

np Comparison of non-dimensional frequencies X of (0/90/core/0/90) sand-

syzc Cy cos x sin y eixt 32 wich plate with a=b 1 and c=d t 10
a b
m n Rao and Desai [11] Present analysis
Substitution of Eqs. (25)(32) into the general governing a=H 100
dierential equations, Eqs. (A1)(A8), produces the gener- 1 1 11.9401 11.8593
alized algebraic eigenvalue problem from which the natural 1 2 23.4017 23.3419
1 3 36.1434 36.1150
frequencies and corresponding vibration modes of a sand-
2 2 30.9432 30.8647
wich plate can be calculated. 2 3 41.4475 41.3906
3 3 49.7622 49.7091
3.1. Sandwich plate with composite face sheets and a soft a=H 10
core 1 1 1.8480 1.8470
1 2 3.2196 3.2182
The free vibration response of a ve-layer (0/90/core/0/ 1 3 5.2234 5.2286
90), simply supported sandwich plate with planar dimen- 2 2 4.2894 4.2882
2 3 6.0942 6.0901
sions a  b is analyzed here. The computed results are sub- 3 3 7.6762 7.6721
sequently compared with the predictions of the higher

Table 1
Material parameters of the antisymmetric sandwich platea
Component Elastic modulus (GPa) Poissons ratio Shear modulus (GPa) Mass density (kg/m3)
Face sheets E1 131 m12 0:22 G12 6:985 qt 1627
E2 10:34 m13 0:22 G13 6:985 qb 1627
E3 10:34 m23 0:49 G23 6:205
Core Ec 6:89  103 mc  0 Gc 3:45  103 qc 97
a
The material parameters are taken from Ref. [11].
614 T. Wang et al. / Composite Structures 82 (2008) 609621

n 1), as obtained by the present analysis and that of Ref.
[11], appear in Fig. 3. The variations of the longitudinal dis-
placements (along the x-axis) are given at the middle of the
left edge of the sandwich plate (x 0, y b=2), Fig. 3a. Sim-
ilarly, the through-the-thickness variation of the transverse
displacements (along the y-axis) are given at the middle of
the front edge of the plate (x a=2, y 0), Fig. 3b. Finally,
the distribution of the vertical displacements through the
height of the plate are calculated in the center of the plate
(x a=2, y b=2), as shown in Fig. 3c.
Fig. 3 shows that the distributions of the in-plane dis-
placements from the present analysis practically coincide
with those of Ref. [11]. The displacements in Fig. 3
were normalized to the longitudinal (usurface), transverse
(vsurface), and vertical (wsurface) displacement components
at the outer surface of the lower skin (see Fig. 1). The same
normalization is used in the following gures. A negligible
discrepancy between the two theories (0.3%) is detected
for the vertical displacements of the core, which is
explained by the fact that in the present formulation, the
horizontal stresses in the core are neglected.

3.2. Symmetric sandwich plate with isotropic face sheets and

a honeycomb core

A simply supported sandwich plate (1.83 m 1.22 m)

with symmetric cross-section, aluminum face sheets, and
an aluminum honeycomb core is considered next. The
material properties of the plate constituents are given in
Table 3.
In Table 4, the natural frequencies of the honeycomb-
core sandwich plate computed using the present analysis
are compared with the analytical results of Refs. [7,8],
and the experimental and analytical results of Ref. [16].
As shown in Table 4, the frequencies, which are obtained
using the present formulation, are consistent with both pre-
vious experimental and numerical predictions. Thus, the
present formulation yields accurate results for both soft-
core and honeycomb-core sandwich plates.

Table 3
Material parametersa
Component Thickness Elastic Poissons Shear Mass
(mm) modulus ratio modulus density
(GPa) (GPa) (kg/m3)
Face sheets 0.4064 68.984 0.3 25.924 2768
Core 6.35 0.1379 0 Gxy 0 121.8
Gxz 0:13445
Gyz 0:05171
a
The material parameters are taken from Ref. [11].

Table 4
Natural frequencies of sandwich plate with aluminum face sheets and
aluminum honeycomb core
Natural Ref. [16] FEM7 SFPM8 Present
frequency analysis
Experiment Analysis
f1 23 23 23.29 23.04
f2 45 44 44 44.47 44.16
Fig. 3. Through-the-thickness variations of the normalized displacements
f3 69 71 70 71.15 69.76
corresponding to the fundamental frequency (m 1, n 1) of the (0/90/
f4 78 80 80 78.78 79.17
core/0/90) sandwich plate with a=H 10: (a) longitudinal displacement
f5 92 91 90 91.57 90.24
along x-axis; (b) transverse displacement along y-axis; and (c) vertical
f6 125 126 125 125.10 124.27
displacement along z-axis (, present analysis; s Ref. [11]).
 T. Wang et al. / Composite Structures 82 (2008) 609621 615

4. Numerical study and discussion with aluminum face sheets and honeycomb core, which was
considered in Section 3.2, is characterized by anti-symmet-
4.1. Vibration response of soft-core sandwich plates with ric vibration modes. On the other hand, the rst symmetric
symmetric and anti-symmetric lay-ups of composite vibration mode for this plate is numerically predicted at a
laminated face sheets frequency above 600 Hz, even for a core with a very low
value of elastic modulus in the vertical direction.
A comparison of the vibration response of soft-core To illustrate this point, the eect of the vertical stiness
sandwich plates with anti-symmetric (0/90/core/0/90) and of the honeycomb core Ec on the magnitude of the rst
symmetric (0/90/core/90/0) lay-ups is considered. The symmetric natural frequency f1s of the sandwich plate is
properties of the composite laminates and the core are
given in Table 1. The rst six normalized natural frequen-
cies X for both anti-symmetric and symmetric sandwich
plates are presented in Table 5. Note that the vibration fre-
quencies of both thin (a=H 100) and thick (a=H 10)
soft-core sandwich plates are presented.
As evident from Table 5, the dierences between the nat-
ural frequencies of the anti-symmetric and symmetric sand-
wich plates are negligible. Note that this equivalence of
values for anti-symmetric and symmetric cases was tracked
up to the pair of wave numbers m 101, n 101. How-
ever, the corresponding vibration modes exhibit quite dif-
ferent through-the-thickness, in-plane displacement
patterns, as illustrated in Fig. 4. As expected, for the sym-
metric sandwich plate, the in-plane displacements of the
face sheets corresponding to the fundamental frequency
are identical in magnitude and opposite in sign, as shown
in Fig. 4a and b.

4.2. Eect of the modulus of a honeycomb core on the

symmetric vibration response of sandwich plates with
isotropic face sheets

The vibration response of a honeycomb-core sandwich

plate is anti-symmetric up to very high frequencies because
a honeycomb core is extremely sti in the vertical direction.
Therefore, symmetric vibration modes of a honeycomb-
core sandwich plate are observed only in the much higher
frequency range. For example, in the frequency range
below 200 Hz, the vibration response of the sandwich plate

Table 5
Natural frequencies of anti-symmetric and symmetric sandwich plates
m n Anti-symmetric (0/90/core/0/ Symmetric (0/90/core/90/
90) 0)
a=H 100
1 1 11.8593 11.8674
1 2 23.3419 22.7200
1 3 36.1150 34.9339
2 2 30.8647 30.8859
2 3 41.3906 40.7379
3 3 49.7091 49.7455
a=H 10
1 1 1.8470 1.8483
Fig. 4. Comparison of the through-the-thickness variations of the
1 2 3.2182 3.1645
normalized displacements corresponding to the fundamental frequency
1 3 5.2286 5.1399
(m 1, n 1) of the anti-symmetric and symmetric sandwich plates with
2 2 4.2882 4.2845
a=H 10: (a) longitudinal displacement along x-axis; (b) transverse
2 3 6.0901 6.0441
displacement along y-axis; and (c) vertical displacement along z-axis (- - -,
3 3 7.6721 7.6753
anti-symmetric; , symmetric).
616 T. Wang et al. / Composite Structures 82 (2008) 609621

presented in Fig. 5. As shown in Fig. 5, the magnitude of f1s

strongly depends on the vertical stiness of the core up to
Ec  0:3 MPa. Beyond this value, the magnitude of the rst
symmetric frequency is not aected by the increase in Ec.
This behavior is explained by the fact that there are
three natural frequencies and three corresponding vibra-
tion modes for each pair (m; n) in the case of the symmetric
vibration response (compare with Section 3.1). For the low
value of Ec the magnitude of the vertical displacements W
is signicantly larger than that of the in-plane displace-
ments (see Fig. 6a). On the other hand, if Ec is increased
by several orders of magnitude, the reverse picture is
observed. Namely, the in-plane displacements become sig-
nicantly larger than the vertical displacements (see
Fig. 6b). Therefore, for the low value of Ec, the pronounced
vertical motion of the sandwich plate occurs, whereas for
the signicantly increased value of Ec, the longitudinal
motion dominates the symmetric vibration response. This
in-plane vibration response happens to be independent of
the value of Ec (see the plateau in Fig. 5).

4.3. Importance of the present formulation for the prediction

of the higher-frequency vibration response

As shown in Fig. 7, the variation of the normalized in-

plane displacements corresponding to the anti-symmetric
vibration modes, which are characterized by the dominant
vertical displacements, changes signicantly with increas- Fig. 6. The horizontal (Us) and vertical (Ws) displacement amplitudes at
ing mode pair m; n). Namely, the through-the-thickness x a=2 corresponding to the rst symmetric frequency (f1s ) of the
variation of the in-plane displacements is linear for honeycomb-core sandwich plate with isotropic face sheets for: (a)
m 1, n 1, whereas it becomes increasingly nonlinear Ec  0:07 MPa, {U s 0:5271e  4, V s 0:7908e  4, W s 1:0000};
and (b) Ec  70:0 MPa, {U s :8320, V s 0:5547, W s 0:1336e  9}
for higher values of m and n. This is because the higher-
(- - -, U; , W).
order terms in Eqs. (20) and (21) involve the second deriv-
atives of the shear stress in the core, which increase with the
mode numbers m and n in the harmonic assumptions of
Eqs. (31) and (32). Therefore, the linear assumptions for
the acceleration eld in the core [9] are suitable only in
the case of low vibrations modes. The present analysis,
however, can be applied equally well for all frequency
ranges of a sandwich plate.

Fig. 7. Distribution of the anti-symmetric longitudinal displacements ~u at

x 0; y b=2 [, (m 1; n 1); - - -, (m 5; n 5);   , ( m 7; n 7)].

5. Conclusions

The consistent higher-order free vibration equations and

the corresponding boundary conditions for sandwich
Fig. 5. Dependence of the rst symmetric natural frequency on the plates have been derived, taking into consideration the
Youngs modulus of the core (m 1, n 1). nonlinear acceleration eld in the core. In addition, the
 T. Wang et al. / Composite Structures 82 (2008) 609621 617
   
general formulation was decoupled into two systems of 13 9 9 13
 qb d b qc c u0b  qc cu0t qc cd t qc c2 w t;x
equations representing symmetric and anti-symmetric 35 70 140 420
vibrations. The present formulation has been validated  
11 13
by comparisons with results of the higher order mixed lay-  qc c2 qc cd b w b;x Ab11 u0b;xx 2Ab16 u0b;xy
210 70
erwise theory for laminated and sandwich plates and the
results of experimental studies. Ab66 u0b;yy Ab16 v0b;xx Ab12 Ab66 v0b;xy Ab26 v0b;yy
A numerical study of the free vibration analysis of soft-  Bb11 wb;xxx  3Bb16 wb;xxy  Bb12 2Bb66 wb;xyy  Bb26 wb;yyy
and honeycomb-core thin and thick sandwich plates with
3
anti-symmetric and symmetric lay-ups was undertaken. q c2 =Gcx sxzc  sxzc 0 A:2
The study showed that the vibration modes of the soft-core 140 c
   
sandwich plates with anti-symmetric and symmetric lay- 13 9 11 13
 qt d t qc c v0t  qc cv0b q c2 qc cd t w t;y
ups exhibit quite dierent through-the-thickness in-plane 35 70 210 c 70

displacement patterns in spite of the almost identical natu- 13 9
 qc c2 qc cd b w b;y At16 u0t;xx At12 At66 u0t;xy
ral frequencies. In the case of honeycomb sandwich plates, 420 140
it was shown that the change in the modulus of the core not At26 u0t;yy At66 v0t;xx 2At26 v0t;xy At22 v0t;yy  Bt16 wt;xxx
only brings about the shift in the rst symmetric frequency,
but also the qualitative change in the corresponding vibra-  Bt12 2Bt66 wt;xxy  3Bt26 wt;xyy  Bt22 wt;yyy
tion pattern. The importance of the present formulation for 3
 q c2 =Gcy syzc syzc 0 A:3
the prediction of the higher-frequency response of sand- 140 c
wich plates was demonstrated.    
9 13 13 2 9
The main dierence between the present approach and  qc cv0t  qb d b qc c v0b qc q cd t w t;y
70 35 420 c 140 c
the higher order mixed formulation is that unlike the latter,  
11 13
which is based on the assumed through-the-thickness dis-  q c2 qc cd b w b;y Ab16 u0b;xx Ab12 Ab66 u0b;xy
placement eld in the core, the former uses the non-linear 210 c 70
displacement eld that is derived based on the well-dened Ab26 u0b;yy Ab66 v0b;xx 2Ab26 v0b;xy Ab22 v0b;yy
physical assumptions.  Bb16 wb;xxx  Bb12 2Bb66 wb;xxy  3Bb26 wb;xyy  Bb22 wb;yyy
The present two-dimensional formulation constitutes an
3
ecient alternative to the application of commercial nite- q c2 =Gcy syzc  syzc 0 A:4
element software, which requires three-dimensional model- 140 c
   
ing to achieve comparable results. Furthermore, in the case 11 13 13 9
q c2 qc cd t u0t;x v0t;y q c2 q cd t u0b;x v0b;y
210 c 70 420 c 140 c
of symmetric sandwich plates, the decoupled formulations,  
1 11 13 1
which represent symmetric and anti-symmetric motions,  q c3 q c2 d t q cd 2 q d 3 wt;xx w
t;yy
105 c 210 c 140 c t 12 t t
can be easily coded and applied to the accurate and ecient  
1 13 9
assessment of the free vibration response of simply sup- q c3 q c2 d t d b wb;xx w
q cd t d b b;yy
140 c 840 c 280 c
ported sandwich plates with either foam or honeycomb  
1 1
cores. qt d t qc c w t qc c wb Ec =cwt  wb  Bt11 u0t;xxx
3 6
 3Bt16 u0t;xxy  Bt12 2Bt66 u0t;xyy  Bt26 u0t;yyy  Bt16 v0t;xxx
Acknowledgement
 Bt12 2Bt66 v0t;xxy  3Bt26 v0t;xyy  Bt22 v0t;yyy Dt11 wt;xxxx
The authors are grateful to the Merwyn C. Gill Founda- 4Dt16 wt;xxxy 4Dt66 2Dt12 wt;xxyy 4Dt26 wt;xyyy Dt22 wt;yyyy
 
tion for support of this research. 1 3 1
qc c3 =Gcx qc c2 d t =Gcx qc c3 =Ec sxzc;x
420 280 24
 
Appendix A. General case 1 3 3 1
qc c =Gcy qc c d t =Gcy qc c3 =Ec syzc;y
2
420 280 24
The eight governing equations in terms of the main 1
 c d t syzc;y sxzc;x 0 A:5
unknown functions u0t, v0t, u0b, v0b, wt, wb, sxzc, and syzc 2
   
13 9   11 13  
read  q c2 q cd b u0t;x v0t;y  q c2 qc cd b u0b;x v0b;y
    420 c 140 c 210 c 70
13 9 11 13  
1 13 9
 q t d t qc c u0t  qc c u0b qc c2 qc cd t w t;x qc c3 qc c2 d t d b qc cd t d b
wt;xx w
t;yy
35 70 210 70 140 840 280
  
1 11 13 1

9 13  q c3 q c2 d b q cd 2 q d 3 wb;xx w b;yy
 qc cd b q c2 w b;x At11 u0t;xx 2At16 u0t;xy 105 c 210 c 140 c b 12 b b
140 420 c  
1 1
At66 u0t;yy At16 v0t;xx At12 At66 v0t;xy At26 v0t;yy qc c wt qb d b qc c w b  Ec =cwt  wb  Bb11 u0b;xxx
6 3
 Bt11 wt;xxx  3Bt16 wt;xxy  Bt12 2Bt66 wt;xyy  Bt26 wt;yyy  3Bb16 u0b;xxy  Bb12 2Bb66 u0b;xyy  Bb26 u0b;yyy
3  Bb16 v0b;xxx  Bb12 2Bb66 v0b;xxy  3Bb26 v0b;xyy  Bb22 v0b;yyy
 q c2 =Gcx sxzc sxzc 0 A:1
140 c Db11 wb;xxxx 4Db16 wb;xxxy 4Db66 2Db12 wb;xxyy
618 T. Wang et al. / Composite Structures 82 (2008) 609621
 
4Db26 wb;xyyy Db22 wb;yyyy 11 1 9 13
  qc c2 d t qc c3 w t;x qc cd t d b q c2 d t d b

1
qc c3 =Gcx
3 1
qc c2 d b =Gcx qc c3 =Ec sxzc;x
210 105 280 840 c
420 280 24   
  1 3 2 1 3
1 3 1 qc w b;x qc c =Gcx c d t sxzc
qc c3 =Gcy qc c2 d b =Gcy qc c3 =Ec syzc;y 140 c 420 280
420 280 24
1
1
 c d b syzc;y sxzc;x 0 A:6  sxzc c d t 0 or wt is prescribed A:13
2 2
   
1 3 3 1  Bb11 u0b;xx  3Bb16 u0b;xy  2Bb66 u0b;yy  Bb16 v0b;xx
q c2 =Ec  q c2 =Gcx u0t q c2 =Gcx  qc c2 =Ec u0b u0t  u0b
10 c 140 c 140 c 10
   2Bb66 v0b;xy  Bb12 2Bb26 v0b;xy Db11 wb;xxx
1 1 3 1
qc c3 =Gcx  qc c3 =Ec qc c2 d t =Gcx  qc c2 d t =Ec Db12 wb;xyy 4Db16 wb;xxy 2Db26 wb;yyy
420 120 280 20
   
w t;x
1 3
qc c =Gcx 
1 3
qc c =Ec
3 1
qc c d b =Gcx  qc c2 d b =Ec
2 13 9
420 120 280 20 4Db66 wb;xyy  qc c c d b u0t
  420 140
1 1 1 1  
w b;x  c d t wt;x  c d b wb;x qc c3 =Ec Gcx  qc c3 =G2cx sxzc 11 13
2 2 10 210  qc c c d b u0b
1 3 1 3 210 70
 c =Ec syzc;xy  c =Ec sxzc;xx c=Gcx sxzc 0  
12 12 9 13 1
A:7 qc cd t d b qc c2 d t d b qc c 3 w t;x
    280 840 140
1 3 3 1  
qc c2 =Ec  qc c2 =Gcy v0t qc c2 =Gcy  qc c2 =Ec v0b 1 13 11 1
10 140 140 10  qb d 3b qc cd 2b q c c2 d b q c c3 w b;x
 12 140 210 105
1 3 1  
v0t  v0b  qc c2 d t =Ec q c2 d t =Gcy  q c3 =Ec 1 3 1
20 280 c 120 c qc c2 =Gcx c d b sxzc  sxzc
  420 280 2
1 1 3
qc c3 =Gcy w t;y  qc c2 d b =Ec q c2 d b =Gcy  c d b 0 or wb is prescribed A:14
420 20 280 c

1 1 1 1 Bt11 u0t;x Bt12 v0t;y Bt16 u0t;y v0t;x  Dt11 wt;xx
 qc c3 =Ec qc c3 =Gcy w b;y  c d t wt;y  c d b wb;y
120 420 2 2
   Dt12 wt;yy  2Dt16 wt;xy
1 1 1
q c3 =Ec Gcy  q c3 =G2cy syzc  c3 =Ec sxzc;xy 0 or wt;x is prescribed A:15
10 c 210 c 12
1 3 Bb11 u0b;x Bb12 v0b;y Bb16 u0b;y v0b;x  Db11 wb;xx
 c =Ec syzc;yy c=Gcy syzc 0 A:8
12
 Db12 wb;yy  2Db16 wb;xy
The corresponding boundary conditions at the left
(x 0) and the right (x a) edges of the sandwich plate 0 or wb;x is prescribed A:16
in the longitudinal direction are given by 1 1
 q c3 =Ec
wt w
b  q c5 =E2c sxzc;x
At11 u0t;x  At12 v0t;y  At16 u0t;y v0t;x Bt11 wt;xx 24 c 120 c
A:9 syzc;y
Bt12 wt;yy 2Bt16 wt;xy 0 or u0t is prescribed
0 or sxzc is prescribed A:17
Ab11 u0b;x  Ab12 v0b;y  Ab16 u0b;y v0b;x
sxzc 0 or sxzc;x is prescribed A:18
Bb11 wb;xx Bb12 wb;yy 2Bb16 wb;xy
sxzc;y 0 or syzc is prescribed A:19
0 or u0b is prescribed A:10
Similarly, the boundary conditions at the front (y 0)
At16 u0t;x  At26 v0t;y  At66 u0t;y v0t;x Bt16 wt;xx and the back (y b) edges of the sandwich plate in the
Bt26 wt;yy 2Bt66 wt;xy transverse direction are given by
0 or v0t is prescribed A:11 At16 u0t;x  At26 v0t;y  At66 u0t;y v0t;x Bt16 wt;xx
Ab16 u0b;x  Ab26 v0b;y  Ab66 u0b;y v0b;x Bt26 wt;yy 2Bt66 wt;xy
Bb16 wb;xx Bb26 wb;yy 2Bb66 wb;xy 0 or u0t is prescribed A:20
0 or v0b is prescribed A:12 Ab16 u0b;x  Ab26 v0b;y  Ab66 u0b;y v0b;x
 Bt11 u0t;xx  3Bt16 u0t;xy  2Bt66 u0t;yy  Bt16 v0t;xx  2Bt26 v0t;yy Bb16 wb;xx Bb26 wb;yy 2Bb66 wb;xy
 Bt12 2Bt66 v0t;xy Dt11 wt;xxx Dt12 4Dt66 wt;xyy 0 or u0b is prescribed A:21
 
11 13 At12 u0t;x  At22 v0t;y  At26 u0t;y v0t;x Bt12 wt;xx
4Dt16 wt;xxy 2Dt26 wt;xyyy qc c c d t u0t
210 70
   Bt22 wt;yy 2Bt26 wt;xy
13 9 1 13
qc c c dt uob  q d3 q cd 2
420 140 12 t t 140 c t 0 or v0t is prescribed A:22
 T. Wang et al. / Composite Structures 82 (2008) 609621 619

Ab12 u0b;x  Ab22 v0b;y  Ab26 u0b;y v0b;x 2Bb16 u0b;x 2Bb66 u0b;y v0b;x 2Bb26 v0b;y
Bb12 wb;xx Bb22 wb;yy 2Bb26 wb;xy  2Db16 wb;xx  2Db26 wb;yy  4Db66 wb;xy
0 or v0b is prescribed A:23 0 or wb is prescribed A:32
 2Bt16 u0t;xx  Bt26 u0t;yy  Bt12 2Bt66 u0t;xy syzc 0 or sxzc is prescribed A:33
 2Bt66 v0t;xx  Bt22 v0t;yy  3Bt26 v0t;xy 2Dt16 wt;xxx sxzc 0 or syzc is prescribed A:34
Dt12 4Dt66 wt;xxy 4Dt26 wt;xyy Dt22 wt;yyy
    Appendix B. Symmetric case
11 13 13 9
qc c c d t v0t qc c c d t vob
210 70 420 140
  The system of equations describing the symmetric
1 3 13 2 11 2 1 3 motion in terms of u, v, w
 reads
 qd q cd q c dt qc w t;y
12 t t 140 c t 210 c 105 c  
  1 1
9 13 1 qc c  2qs du qc c c d w  ;x 2A11 u;xx
qc cd t d b qc c2 d t d b qc c 3 w b;y 2 3
280 840 140
  2A66 u;yy 4A16 u;xy 2A16v;xx 2A26v;yy 2A12
1 3 1
qc c2 =Gcy c d t syzc  syzc c d t
420 280 2 A66 v;xy 0 B1
 
0 or wt is prescribed A:24 1 1

qc c  2qs dv qc c c d w ;y 2A16 u;xx
 2Bb16 u0b;xx  Bb26 u0b;yy  Bb12 2Bb66 u0b;xy  2Bb66 v0b;xx 2 3

 Bb22 v0b;yy  3Bb26 v0b;xy 2Db16 wb;xxx 4Db66 2A26 u;yy 2A66 A12 u;xy 2A66v;xx 2A22v;yy

Db12 wb;xxy 4Db26 wb;xyy Db22 wb;yyy 4A26v;xy 0 B2

     
13 9 11 13 1 1 2
 qc c c d b vot  qc c c d b v0b  qc cd  qc c u;x v;y
420 140 210 70 2 6
 
  1 3 1 2 1 2 1 3
9 13 1 q c qc c d qc cd qs d w  ;xx
qc cd t d b qc c2 d t d b qc c 3 w t;y 30 c 6 4 6
280 840 140  
  1
1 3 13 2 11 2 1 3 w ;yy  2qs d qc c w  2D11 w
 ;xxxx
 q d q cd q c db qc w b;y 3
12 b b 140 c b 210 c 105 c
   8D16 w
 ;xxxy  42D66 D12 
w;xxyy  8D26 w
 ;xyyy
1 3
qc c2 =Gcy c d b syzc  2D22 w
 ;yyyy  4Ec =c
w 0 B3
420 280
1 where d d t d b is the thickness of the face sheets;
 sxzc c d b 0 or wb is prescribed A:25
2 qs qt qb is the density of the face sheets; and index
Bt12 u0t;x Bt22 v0t;y Bt26 u0t;y v0t;x  Dt12 wt;xx i t; b has been omitted from the letter variables repre-
 Dt22 wt;yy  2Dt26 wt;xy senting the stinesses of the composite face sheets.
The boundary condition for the symmetric vibrations at
0 or wt;y is prescribed A:26 the left (x 0) and the right (x a) edges of the sandwich
Bb12 u0b;x Bb22 v0b;y Bb26 u0b;y v0b;x  Db12 wb;xx plate in the longitudinal direction are given by
 Db22 wb;yy  2Db26 wb;xy 0 or wb;y is prescribed A:27 2A11 u;x  2A16 u;y v;x  2A12v;y 0 or u is prescribed
syzc;x 0 or sxzc is prescribed A:28 B4
1 1 2A16 u;x  2A66 u;y v;x  2A26v;y 0 or v is prescribed
 qc c3 =Ec
wt w
b  q c5 =E2c sxzc;x syzc;y 0
24 120 c B5
or syzc is prescribed A:29
1 1
syzc 0 or syzc;y is prescribed A:30 qc cc 3du  2qc c3 15qc cd 2 10qc c2 d
6 60
The boundary conditions at the corners of the sandwich 10qs d 3 w
 ;x 2D11 w
 ;xxx 2D12 2D66 
w;xyy
plate (x 0, y 0), (x 0, y b), (x a, y 0) and 6D16 w
 ;xxy 2D26 w
 ;yyy 0 or  is prescribed
w B6
(x a, y b) read
2D11 w
 ;xx  2D12 w
 ;yy  4D16 w
 ;xy 0 or w
 ;x is prescribed
2Bt16 u0t;x 2Bt66 u0t;y v0t;x 2Bt26 v0t;y B7
 2Dt16 wt;xx  2Dt26 wt;yy  4Dt66 wt;xy
whereas the boundary condition at the front (y 0) and
0 or wt is prescribed A:31 the back (y b) edges in the case of symmetric motion are
620 T. Wang et al. / Composite Structures 82 (2008) 609621

2A16 u;x  2A26v;y  2A66 

u;y v;x 0 or 
u is prescribed The corresponding boundary conditions for the
B8 anti-symmetric motion at the left (x 0) and the right
(x a) edges of the sandwich plate in the longitudinal
2A12 u;x  2A22v;y  2A26 
u;y v;x 0 or v is prescribed direction are
B9
1 1 2A11 ~u;x  2A16 ~u;y ~v;x  2A12~v;y 0 or ~u is prescribed
q c3d c v  10qs d 3 10qc c2 d 15qc cd 2
6 c 60 B18
2qc c3 w

 ;y 2D22 w
 ;yyy 2D12 2D66 
w;xxy
2A16 ~u;x  2A26~v;y  2A66 ~u;y ~v;x 0 or ~v is prescribed
2D16 w
 ;xxx 6D26 w
 ;xyy 0 or  is prescribed
w B10 B19
2D22 w
 ;yy  2D12 w
 ;xx  4D26 w
 ;xy 0 or  ;y is prescribed
w 1
q c3c 17d~u
B11 70 c
 
The corner conditions at (x 0, y 0), (x 0, y b), 1 3 3 2 17 2 1 3
 q d qc c d q cd qc w ~ ;x
(x a, y 0) and (x a, y b) in the case of symmetric 6 s 70 140 c 210 c
motion read 2D11 w
~ ;xxx 6D16 w
~ ;xxy 2D12 2D66 ~
w;xyy
8D66 w ;xy  4D26 w
 ;yy  4D16 w
 ;xx 0 or w
 is prescribed
1
B12 2D26 w
~ ;yyy q c2 =Gcx 2c 9dsxzc
420 c
The set of ve governing equations that describes the anti-  c dsxzc 0 or ~ is prescribed
w B20
symmetric motion of the sandwich plate in terms of ~u, ~v, w ~,
sxzc , and syzc reads 2D11 w
~ ;xx  2D12 w
~ ;yy  4D16 w
~ ;xy 0 or w
~ ;x is prescribed
 
17 1 B21
 qc c 2qs d ~u qc c3c 17dw ~ ;x 2A11 ~u;xx 2A66 ~ u;yy
35 70 1
4A16 ~u;xy 2A16~v;xx 2A26~v;yy 2A66 A12 ~v;xy ~  1 qc c2 =E2 sxzc;x syzc;y
 qc c3 =Ec w c
12 120
3
 qc c2 =Gcx sxzc 2sxzc 0 B13 0 or sxzc is prescribed B22
70
  sxzc 0 or sxzc;x is prescribed B23
17 1
 qc c 2qs d ~v qc c3c 17dw
~ ;y
35 70 sxzc;y 0 or syzc is prescribed B24
2A16 u ~;xx 2A26 u ~;yy 2A12 A66 ~ u;xy 2A66~v;xx 4A26~v;xy And the boundary conditions for the anti-symmetric mo-
3 tion at the front (y 0) and the back (y b) edges of the
2A22~v;yy  qc c2 =Gcy syzc 2syzc 0 B14
70 sandwich plate are given by
1 2A16 ~u;x  2A26~v;y  2A66 ~u;y ~v;x 0 or ~u is prescribed
 qc c3c 17d~u;x ~v;y
70 
17 3 1 1 B25
qc cd 2 qc c2 d qc c3 qs d 3 w ~ ;yy
~ ;xx w
140 70 210 6 2A22~v;y  2A26 ~u;y ~v;x  2A12 ~u;x 0 or ~v is prescribed
 qc c 2qs dw ~  2D11 w ~ ;xxxx  8D16 w ~ ;xxxy
B26
 8D
 66 4D 12 ~
w ;xxyy  8D 26 ~
w ;xyyy  2D ~ ;yyyy 
22 w
1 1 3 1 1
 q c3 =Ec q c3 =Gcy q c2 d=Gcy syzc;y sxzc;x qc c17d 3c~v  2qc c3 70qs d 3 18qc c2 d
12 c 210 c 140 c 70 420
c dsyzc;y sxzc;x 0 B15 ~ ;y 2D16 w
51qc cd 2 w ~ ;xxx 2D12 D66 ~
w;xxy
 
3 2 2 3 1 1 ~ ;x 6D26 w~ ;xyy 2D22 w
~ ;yyy
 qc c =Gcx ~ u qc c d=Gcx c=Gcx c=Ec w  
70 140 210 12 1 3
1 qc c2 =Gcy c d syzc  c dsyzc
 c d~ w;x 2~ u q c5 =E2c sxzc;xx syzc;xy 210 140
120 c
1 1 0 or w
~ is prescribed B27
 q c3 =G2cx sxzc  c3 =Ec sxzc;xx syzc;xy
210 c 12 2D22 w
~ ;yy  2D12 w
~ ;xx  4D26 w
~ ;xy 0 or w
~ ;y is prescribed
c=Gcx sxzc 0 B16
  B28
3 2 2 3 1 1 ~ ;y
 qc c =Gcy v qc c ~ d=Gcy c=Gcy c=Ec w syzc;x 0 or sxzc is prescribed B29
70 140 210 12
1 1
 c d~ w;y 2~v q c5 =E2c sxzc;xy syzc;yy  ~  1 qc c2 =E2 sxzc;x syzc;y
qc c3 =Ec w
120 c 12 120 c
1 1
 qc c3 =G2cy syzc  c3 =Ec sxzc;xy syzc;yy 0 or syzc is prescribed B30
210 12
c=Gcy syzc 0 B17 syzc 0 or syzc;y is prescribed B31
 T. Wang et al. / Composite Structures 82 (2008) 609621 621

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8D66 w~ ;xy  4D26 w
~ ;yy  4D16 w
~ ;xx 0 or w
~ is prescribed 616.
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