The effect of embedding a porous core on the free vibration behavior of laminated composite plates

This paper proposes the use of a porous core between layers of laminated composite plates to examine its effect on the natural frequencies of the resulted porous laminated composite sandwich plate (PLCSP) resting on a two-parameter elastic foundation. Moreover, it has been suggested that the dispersion of porosity has two different functionally graded (FG) patterns which are compared with a uniformly dispersed (UD) profile to find their best vibrational efficiency in the proposed PLCSPs. In FG patterns, two types of dispersions, including symmetric (FG-S) and asymmetric (FG-A) patterns have been considered. To derive the governing Eigen value equation of such structures, the first order shear deformation theory (FSDT) of plates has been employed. Accordingly, a finite element method (FEM) is developed to solve the derived Eigen value equation. Using the mentioned theory and method, the effects of porosity parameters, fiber orientation of laminated composite, geometrical dimensions, boundary conditions and elastic foundation on the natural frequencies of the proposed PLCSPs have been studied. It is observed that embedding porosity in core layer leads to a significant improvement in the natural frequencies of PLCSPs. Moreover, the natural frequencies of PLCSPs with FG porous core are higher than those with UD porous core.