Vibration and damping analysis of laminated composite plates by the finite element method

The present investigation is concerned with the utilisation of the finite element technique for predicting the natural frequencies and the modal damping factor (also called the loss factor) of anisotropic fibre-reinforced composite laminated plates. The simple definition of the modal damping factor is defined as the ratio of the strain energy dissipated per radian of vibration, in the mode of interest, to the total strain energy of the entire laminate at maximum displacement during the same cycle. Results for the vibration and damping analysis of multi-layered plates obtained by the present methods are compared with the results obtained by other authors and with the results of experiments.