IDENTIFICATION OF TEMPERATURE-DEPENDENCE FOR ORTHOTROPIC MATERIAL MODULI

The present paper deals with the identification of orthotropic material moduli by a combined numerical and experimental approach. Although static material properties are our goal, the identification is based on eigenfrequencies for a free rectangular plate because excellent agreement between measured and calculated eigenfrequencies can be obtained. The numerical identification problem can be formulated as an optimization problem where an error functional is minimized. This error functional expresses the difference between model analysis response and experimental response. The method is fast and non-destructive and requires only one experiment to obtain all four moduli. In addition, the method is suitable for the study of material moduli in different environments since the test plate is removed from the test equipment. Examples for the temperature dependence of the material moduli for plates made from aluminium, glass/epoxy and carbon/epoxy are presented.