As the use of carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) increases in aerospace struc-
tures it is important to use this material in an efficient manner such that both the weight
and cost of the structure are minimized while maintaining its performance. To com-
bat undesirable vibrational characteristics of a structure an optimization program was
developed which takes advantage of the orthotropic nature of composite materials to
maximize eigenfrequency bandgaps. The results from the optimization process were then
fabricated and subjected to modal testing. The experiments show that local fiber angle
optimization is a valid method for modifying the natural frequencies of a structure with
the theoretical results generally predicting the performance of the optimized composite
plates.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/33241 |
| Date | 20 November 2012 |
| Creators | Haystead, Dane |
| Contributors | Steeves, Craig A. |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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