The Effect of Ply Orientation on the Vibration Characteristics of ‘T’ Stiffen Composites Panel: A Finite Element Study

Aircraft producers have extensively adopted the use of T-shaped stiffened fibre reinforced composite panels in the thin walled structures such as the fuselage and wings. The composite materials present the advantage of high specific strength and stiffness ratios, coupled with weight reduction compare to traditional materials. This report presents a numerical study about the free-free vibration analysis of T-stiffened carbon fibre reinforced epoxy composite panels with surface and identical ply orientations of 0°, 15°, 30°, 45°, 60°, 75° and 90° using ANSYS 17 finite element code. These changes has effect on the element stiffness matrix and hence the dynamic characteristics of the panels. The fundamental frequencies increase to a peak and then decrease taking the form a half sine curve. The dynamic analysis was realized using the Lanczos tool to extract the mode shapes and natural frequencies.