An Experimental Investigation of Modal Densities of Composite Honeycomb Sandwich Cylindrical Shells

Honeycomb sandwich composite cylindrical shells are widely used in aerospace structures. Experimentally observed modal densities of such shells are not reported. In this work, modal densities of a typical honeycomb sandwich composite cylinder are obtained experimentally by measuring the drive point admittance. The results are in good agreement with those estimated theoretically that incorporated transverse shear deformation. Its limitations at higher frequencies are investigated and the frequency beyond which the estimation is in error is determined. The results provide an example to prove the need for measuring the imaginary part of the driving point admittance and using it in the determination of the modal densities of honeycomb sandwich-type structures. Experiments are carried out with two boundary conditions for the cylinder and the results provide experimental evidence for the fact that the modal densities at high frequencies do not depend on the boundary conditions. At higher frequencies, it is expected that both of the face sheets vibrate independently. This frequency can be approximately estimated as the fundamental bending mode frequency of the wall of the honeycomb core. The modal density determined through the measured driving point admittance will have a sharp reduction at this frequency and this feature can be used in identifying this phenomenon. The experimental results are in very good agreement with the above results.