EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THE DYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF CARBON-FIBER EPOXY COMPOSITE THIN BEAMS

Abstract

The dynamic characteristics of high strength symmetrically laminated carbon fiber epoxy composite thin beams were experimentally investigated in a vacuum chamber equipped with a fiber optic vibrometer and the electromagnetic hammer. The measured dynamic characteristics were compared to those calculated by the macromechanical theory based on the anisotropic plate theory and the Bernoulli-Euler beam theory. From the comparison, it was found that the macromechanical theory could accurately predict the dynamic characteristics of the carbon fiber epoxy composite thin beams when the undirectional properties of the composite material were known.