15th ASCE Engineering Mechanics Conference June 2-5, 2002, Columbia University, New York, NY

EM
2002

ANALYTICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF VIBRATION BEHAVIOR OF FRP COMPOSITE I-BEAMS

Pizhong Qiao1, Guiping Zou2, and Gangbing Song3
ABSTRACT In this paper, a combined analytical and experimental approach is used to characterize the vibration behavior of pultruded Fiber-Reinforced Plastic (FRP) composite cantilever I-beams. Based on a Vlasov-type linear hypothesis, dynamic beam mass and stiffness coefficients, which account for both cross-section geometry and material anisotropy of the section, are analytically derived. The eigen-frequency problem is solved by Ritz energy method, and both exact transcendental and polynomial shape functions satisfying the boundary conditions of cantilever beams are used to describe the modal shapes. Piezoelectric ceramic (Lead zirconate titanate (PZT)) patches are used as smart sensors and surface-bonded near the cantilevered end of the I-beam. Vibration signals are measured by the PZT sensors, and the natural frequencies of the first three modes are obtained from the Power Spectral Density (PSD) plots. A good agreement of natural frequencies among the proposed analytical method, finite element analysis and smart experimental sensing is achieved. The proposed analytical solution and experimental testing using smart sensors can be used to effectively characterize the vibration behavior for FRP composite beams.

Keywords: FRP composites, vibration, Vlasov theory, thin-walled beams, piezoelectric materials, smart sensors INTRODUCTION Pultruded fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) composite structural shapes have been increasingly used for civil engineering construction due to their light-weight and corrosion resistance characteristics. The FRP shapes (e.g., beams and columns) are usually thin-walled structures manufactured by pultrusion process, and materials used are high-strength E-glass fibers embedded in either vinyl ester or polyester polymer resin (Qiao et al. 1999). Due to complexity of composites and thin-walled configuration of FRP shapes, consistent theories and pertinent analytical tools are needed to determine their static and dynamic response. Numerous theories for isotropic thin-walled beams have been well developed. Most studies introduced in the literature mainly deal with the general theory and static response of thin-walled structures, and limited studies have been devoted to the dynamic behavior of anisotropic thin-walled structures. As smart materials (e.g., piezoelectric pads and shape memory alloys) are increasingly used in active control and damping of composite structures, a better understanding of free vibration
1 2 3

Dept. of Civil Eng., The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325-3905. E-mail: Qiao@uakron.edu Dept. of Civil Eng., The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325-3905. Dept. of Mechanical Eng., The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325-3903.

behavior of anisotropic thin-walled structures seems more important in facilitating the design and analysis of smart composite structures. In this study, a combined analytical and experimental characterization of vibration behavior of pultruded FRP cantilever I-beams is presented, and a simplified formulation based on Vlasvo linear hypothesis and Ritz energy method is derived. Two types of shape functions (exact transcendental function and polynomial function), which satisfy the cantilever boundary conditions, are studied. Piezoelectric ceramic (Lead zirconate titanate (PZT)) patches surface-bonded near the cantilevered end of the I-beam are used as smart sensors to experimentally obtain the natural frequencies. Comparison of analytical solution with experimental tests using smart PZT sensors and numerical results of finite element analysis is performed. ANALYTICAL FORMULATIONS A brief review of available theories and studies on dynamic behavior of thin-walled composite structures is given in Zou and Qiao (2002). In this section, the theoretical frame on dynamic analysis using Vlasvo theory for anisotropic thin-walled structures is presented. Governing Equations Toward the goal of deriving the equations of motion for anisotropic thin-walled structures, the Hamiltons variational principle is used. This variational principle can be stated as

= { K }dt = 0
t0

t1

(1)

where

=
and

1 ( NW + M yU M xV + M + TS )dz 2 K= 1 & & d 2

(2)

(3)

denote the strain energy and kinetic energy, respectively, in which () denotes differentiation with respect to z; N is the axial force; M x , M y are the bending moments acting about the x and y axes, respectively; M is the warping moment, so called by Timoshenko and Gere (1961), or the biomoment as designated by Vlasov (1961); TS is the St. Venant torsion or free warping; is the mass per unit volume; and = [u ( z , s ), v( z , s ), w( z , s )]T . As shown in Fig. 1, the lateral beam displacements U and V act at an arbitrary pole P; whereas the normal and tangential displacements of an arbitrary point (x, y) on the contour line of a cross section are denoted by u and v. The angle of the tangent to the contour at the point (x, y) with respect to the x-axis of the rectangular Cartesian coordinate system x, y is defined as , and the rotation of a cross section at the pole P is signified by . From geometric considerations (Gjelsvik 1981), the displacement transformation can be stated as u ( z , s ) = U sin V cos q (4) v ( z , s ) = U cos + V sin + r

w( z , s ) = W U x V y where U, V,W and are functions of the axial coordinate z only; , q and r are functions of the

contour coordinates n and s, and in Eq. (4) is defined as

= rds
C

(5)

as defined in Eq. (5) is a section property and called the sectional area (Timoshenko and Gere 1961). The constitutive relation for the anisotropic thin-walled beams can be stated as (Bauld et al. 1984) 0 0 0 W N A 0 M 0 I H C V 0 0 xx x I yy 0 H S U (6) M y = 0 0 M 0 0 I H q 0 JG TS 0 H C H S H q where A = A11ds, I xx = ( A11 y 2 + D11 cos 2 )ds, I yy = ( A11 x 2 + D11 sin 2 )ds

I = ( A11 2 + D11q 2 )ds, JG = 4 D33ds, H s = 2 D13 sin ( s )ds H C = 2 D13 cos ( s )ds,
respectively (Jones 1975).
y Contour n, u s, v w

(7)

H q = 2 D13q( s )ds

in which Aij and Dij are the extensional and bending stiffness of a laminated panel,

s V q P, W Pole U O Origin

FIG. 1. Coordinate systems of thin-walled beam By substituting Eqs. (6) and (4) into Eqs. (2) and (3), using Gauss integration for the kinetic energy, K, and the expression for the strain energy, , and using the Hamilton principle in Eq. (1), the equilibrium equations are obtained as

&& && & & A W I 1W + I 10U + I 11V& + I 12& = 0 && && & & & I yyU H s + I 1U + I 2& + I 3U I 4& I 13V& = 0 & & && & & I xxV + H C + I 1V& + I 5& + I 6V& I 13U I 9& = 0 && & && && & I H CV + H sU JG + I 2U + I 5V& + I 7& I 12W I 4U I 9V& I 8& = 0 & & in which () denotes the differentiation with respect to time t and
I 1 = dA, I 2 = ( r cos q sin )dA, I 3 = x 2 dA, I 4 = xdA
A A A A 2 2 2

(8)

I 5 = ( q cos + r sin ) xdA, I 6 = y dA, I 7 = ( q + r )dA, I 8 = 2 dA (9)

A A A A

I 9 = ydA, I 10 = xdA, I 11 = ydA,

A A A

I 12 = dA, I 13 = xydA
A A

tf
bf/2 s4

y 0 hw/2 s5 bf/2

hw

tw
0 Pole
2

s3 s1 -hw/2 bf/2 s2

bf

FIG. 2. Typical I-section beam: (a) cross section; (b) contour coordinate system Rigidities of FRP I-Beam For a typical I-beam (see Fig. 2), the centroid, principal pole and principal origin coincide. The contour has five branches, numbered as in Fig. 2. The warping, torsional, flexural stiffness components in Eq. (7) and dynamic coefficients in Eq. (9) are given as follows 1 1 1 2 3 I = A11 f hw b 3 + D11 f b 3 + D11w hw , JG = 8 D33 f b f + 4 D33w hw f f 24 6 12 1 1 1 2 3 (10) I xx = A11 f b f hw + 2 D11 f b f + A11w hw , I yy = A11 f b 3 + D11w hw f 2 12 6 1 2 H s = 2 D13w hw , H C = 4 D13w b f , H q = ( D13 f b f t 2 + D13w hw t w f 2
2 I 1 = ( 2b f t f + hw t w ), I 2 = hw (b f t f 0.5t w ), I 3 = b f t f (3b 2 6b f t f + 8t 2 ) / 12 f f 3 I 4 = hw (b 3 t f 2b 2 t 2 ) / 8, I 5 = b f t f (t f b f ) / 2, I 6 = hw (3b f hw t f + 2t w ) / 6 f f f 2 3 I 7 = (3b 3 t f + 6b f hw t f 6b 2 t 2 + 8b f t 3 + 4hw t w ) / 12, I 9 = I 10 = 0 f f f f 2 I 8 = hw ( 3b 3 hw t f + 6b 2 hw t 2 8b 2 hw t 3 ) / 48, I 11 = hw t w / 2, I 12 = I 13 = 0 f f f f f

(11)

For simplicity, the coupling between the bending and flexural-torsion vibration is not considered here, and then the simplified equilibrium formulation can be stated as && A W I 1W = 0 && && I yyU + I 1U + I 3U = 0 (12) & & I xxV + I 1V& + I 6V& = 0 I JG + I 7& I 8& = 0 & & Displacement Field of Cantilever I-Beam The free vibration displacement fields which satisfy the cantilever beam boundary conditions can be selected as either the exact transcendental shape function or polynomial shape function. These two types of shape functions are all considered in this study. The exact transcendental function is assumed as (Zou 1998; Elishkoff and Gud 2001)

U ( z , t ) U V ( z , t ) m z z z z V ) sinh( m ) m [cos( m ) cosh( m )e it (13a) = sin( L L L L ( z , t ) m =1, 2,3,K W ( z , t ) W sinh( m ) + sin( m ) cos( m ) + cosh( m ) with 1 = 1.875104, 2 = 4.694091, 3 = 7.854757, K
where

m =

(13b)

The polynomial deformed modal function is assumed as (Elishkoff and Gud 2001)

U ( z , t ) U V ( z , t ) 1 z V m ( )e it = L ( z , t ) m =1, 2,3,K (m + 1)(m + 2)(m + 3)(m + 4) W ( z , t ) W

where

(14)

z z 1 z 1 z m ( ) = ( ) m + 4 (m + 1)(m + 3)(m + 4)( ) 3 + (m + 1)(m + 3)(m + 4)( ) 2 L L 6 L 2 L

(15)

The Rayleigh-Ritz method is employed to solve the eigenvalues of the potential energy equilibrium equations in Eq. (12), and the details of the formulation can be found in Zou and Qiao (2002). EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL EVALUATIONS The beam structure under consideration is a wide-flange I-beam (WF 10.16 x 10.16 x 0.635 cm (WF 4 x 4 x in.)) with a given span length of 3.353 m. The beam is cantilevered at one end (Fig. 3), and the PZT patches are surface bonded near the end support. Two patches (model No. PZT QP-40W) are bonded on each of the top and bottom flange surfaces for active control and sensing purposes (Song et al. 2002). The panels of pultruded FRP shapes are not made by hand lay-up; but they can be simulated as a laminated configuration. The laminated panel properties of I-beam are predicted by a micro/macromechanics approach (Davalos et al. 1996)

and are given in Table 1. The density of flange and web is = 1850 kg/m3. The experimental modal frequency identification is carried out by manually exciting the I-beam in the torsional direction. In this study, the strong direction refers to the bending along the strong axis of the beam, the weak direction to the bending along the weak axis and the torsional direction to the twisting of the beam along the beam length. Vibration signals measured by the PZT sensors along both the weak and strong directions are recorded for power spectral analysis. The Power spectral density (PSD) plot of the strong and weak directions of the manual excitation in torsional mode is shown in Figs. 4 and 5, respectively. The natural frequencies of the first three modes are clearly visible in both the PSD plots of the strong and weak direction.
Base to Cantilever the 11-Foot Composite I-Beam Peizo Patches as Sensors and Actuators

PC with Real-time Control System Power Amplifier for Peizo Actuators

FIG. 3. Experimental setup of cantilever I-beam Table 1. Panel stiffness of I-beam Section (cm) Component Flange Web Component Flange Web

A11 ( N / m)
1.995108 1.697108

A66 ( N / m)
3.080107 2.730107

D11 ( N m)
500 457

D12 ( N m)
110 107

I-Beam 10.210.20.64

D22 ( N m)
250 238

D16 ( N m)
7 7

D26 ( N m)
7 7

D66 ( N m)
126 122

The commercial finite element program ANSYS is used to perform an eigenvalue analysis, and Mindlin eight-node isoparametric layered shell elements (SHELL 99) are employed in the modeling. The deformed shapes for bending along weak-axis, strong-axis, and flexural torsion vibration from the finite element modeling (FEM) are given in Fig. 6. Analytical frequencies using the exact transcendental and polynomial shape functions along with finite element and experimental results at the length of L = 3.353 m are given in Table 2, and a relatively good agreement among analytical solution, FEM and experiment is achieved, especially for the first mode of natural frequencies.

Power Spectrum : Strong 20 -10 -20 0 Power Spectrum Magnitude (dB) Power Spectrum Magnitude (dB) -30 -40 -50 -60 -70 -80 -90 -100 -100

Power Spectrum : W eak

-20

-40

-60

-80

10

20

30

40

50 60 Frequency

70

80

90

100

10

20

30

40

50 60 Frequency

70

80

90

100

FIG. 4. PSD plot in the strong direction under excitation in torsional direction

FIG. 5. PSD plot in the weak direction under excitation in torsional direction

(c) (b) (a) FIG. 6. Finite element deformed shapes: (a) bending along weak-axis; (b) bending along strong-axis; (c) flexural-torsion vibration Mode 1 2 3 Table 2. Comparison of Natural Frequencies Exact Transcendental Polynomial FEM Function (Hz) Function (Hz) (Hz) 4.88 4.88 4.81 8.92 8.93 8.83 13.63 13.55 11.45 Experimental (Hz) 4.49 7.62 13.47

CONCLUSIONS In this paper, a combined analytical and experimental study of vibration behavior of pultruded FRP composite cantilever I-beams is presented. Based on Vlasov linear hypothesis, the equilibrium differential equations are formulated and solved by Ritz energy method. Both the exact transcendental and polynomial shape functions satisfying the cantilever boundary conditions are used to obtain the analytical solutions. The natural frequencies of FRP cantilever I-beams are reduced from the vibration signals collected by the PZT sensors, and it indicates that the smart materials can be efficiently applied for accurate measurement of structural responses. The comparisons of analytical solution with experimental results using smart sensors and finite

element numerical models demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed method for free vibration analysis of FRP cantilever I-beams. The analytical approach presented can be used as an efficient and versatile tool for free vibration analysis of FRP thin-walled structures and as a basis for further study in active control and damping of FRP structures REFERENCES Bauld, N.R.Jr., and Tzeng, L.S. (1984). A Vlasov theory for fiber-reinforced beams with thin-walled open cross sections, Int. J. Solids and Struct., 20(3), 277-297. Davalos, J.F., Salim, H.A., Qiao, P.Z., Lopez-Anido, R., and Barbero, E.J. (1996). Analysis and design of pultruded FRP shapes under bending, Composites, Part B-Eng. J., 27(3-4), 295-305. Elishakoff, I. and Gud, Z. (2001). Novel closed-form solutions in buckling of inhomogeneous columns under distributed variable loading, Chaos, Solitons and Fractals, 12, 1075-1089. Gjelsvik, A. (1981). The Theory of Thin Walled Bars, John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY. Jones, R.M. (1975). Mechanics of Composite Materials, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY. Qiao, P. Z., Davalos, J. F., Barbero, E. J., and Troutman, D. L. (1999). Equations Facility Composite Design. Modern Plastics, 76(11), 77-80. Song, G., Qiao, P., Sethi, V., and Prasad, A. (2002). Active vibration control of a smart pultruded fiber-reinforced polymer I-beam, SPIEs 9th Annual Int. Sym. on Smart Structures and Materials, San Diego, CA. Timoshenko, S.P. and Gere, J.M. (1961). Theory of Elastic Stability, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY. Vlasov, V.Z. (1961). Thin-Walled Elastic Beams (translated from Russian), National Science Foundation, U. S. Dept. of Commerence, Washington, DC, TT-61-11400. Zou, G.P. (1998). An exact symplectic solution for the dynamic analysis of Reissner plates, Comput. Methods in Appl. Mech. Engrg., 156, 171-178. Zou, G.P. and Qiao, P.Z. (2002). Free vibration analysis of fiber-reinforced plastic composite cantilever I-beams, Mechanics of Composite Materials and Structures, in press.