Experimental evaluation of dynamic behavior of metallic plates reinforced by polymer matrix composites

The applications of composite materials have become common in different industries. These materials introduce lower weight, high strength, and viscoelastic properties. Although composite materials offer many advantages in the designing and manufacturing of structures, they cannot replace the wide range of using metallic materials. Most of the industries especially aerospace try to use composite materials together with metal advantages in order to design a safe and optimized structure. The offshore structure can be reinforced and repaired with composite layers. In this research, the effects of composite reinforcement on the dynamic behavior of metallic plates are studied. Several panels are treated with different lay-ups and the modal testing was conducted to evaluate the effect of such treatments. This reinforcing can change both stiffness and damping properties of structures. The stiffness properties of such reinforced plates can be influenced by fiber properties, while the damping properties come from the viscoelastic property of the matrix. Modal testing is applied to the specimens and the modal parameters are derived experimentally. This study shows that using composite material can modify both stiffness and damping characteristics.