Indian Journal of Engineering & Materials Sciences

Vol. 18, February 2011, pp. 7-14

Vibration analysis of delaminated composite beams using analytical
and FEM models
Hasan alliolu & Gkmen Atlihan*
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pamukkale University, 20020, Denizli, Turkey
Received 22 September 2010; accepted 10 February 2011
In this study, the effects of delamination length and orientation angle on the natural frequency of symmetric composite
beams are investigated, analytically and numerically. The analytical method is developed using the Timoshenko beam
theory. The transverse shear effect and the rotary inertia terms are taken into account in the governing equations of
vibration. Two dimensional finite element models of the delaminated beams are established using contact element at the
ANSYS. The values of the natural frequency in laminated beams are obtained using the normal penalty stiffness that is
chosen as the elasticity modulus for the contact element of the delamination region. When the analytical results are
compared with numerical results and the results in literature, it is seen that the results are very close to each other. It is
shown that natural frequencies decrease when delamination length in the beam increases and the natural frequencies change
with the change of orientation angle.
Keywords: Natural frequency, Vibration, FEM, Analytical model, Delamination
Composite materials have generally been used in
structural designs of aircraft, ship and automobile
because of high strength and stiffness to weight ratios.
However, composites are very sensitive to the
anomalies caused during their fabrication or service
life. Delamination may arise either because of
imperfect fabrication processes such as incomplete
wetting and entrapped air pockets between layers, or
because of certain in-service factors, such as low
velocity impact by foreign objects. Although
delamination damage is known to cause a degradation
of overall stiffness and strength of the laminates, how
delaminations cause change in vibration
characteristics has already been investigated. The
delaminated beam generally exhibits new vibration
modes and frequencies that depend on the
delamination length.
There are numerical studies using finite element
method (FEM) in the literatures. Komur
1
presented
buckling analysis of a woven-glass-polyester
laminated composite plate with a circular/elliptical
hole. However, dynamic behaviors of the laminated
composite plates and beams without delamination
2-4

and with single and multiple delaminations can be
found in the literatures. Topcu
5
studied the effects of
stacking sequences on natural frequencies of
laminated composite beams by using both
experimental and theoretical approaches. Atlihan
6,7

investigated the effects of stacking sequences on
natural frequencies of laminated composite beams via
the differential quadrature method (DQM). They
demonstrated that the effective stiffness of the
laminated composite beam can be altered through a
change in the stacking sequence.

Alnefaie
8
developed a three-dimensional (3D)
finite element model of delaminated fiber-reinforced
composite plates for dynamics analysis. Those models
were used for detecting delaminations in composite
plates. Ramtekkar
9
proposed two models, the
unconstrained-interface model and the contact-
interface model, for the computation of frequencies
and the mode shapes of delaminated beams. Palacz
10

presented a spectral finite element model for analysis
of flexural-shear coupled wave propagation in
delaminated multilayered composite beams. Kumar
and Shrivastava
11
developed a finite element
formulation based on higher order shear deformation
theory and Hamiltons principle for the free vibration
response of thick square composite plates having a
central rectangular cutout, with and without the
presence of a delamination around the cutout. Della
and Shu
12,13
developed analytical solutions for the free
vibrations of multiple delaminated beams under axial
compressive loadings via the Euler-Bernoulli beam
________
*Corresponding author (E-mail: [email protected])
INDIAN J ENG. MATER. SCI., FEBRUARY 2011


8
theory. Lee
14
proposed an analytical formulation
derived from the assumption of constant curvature at
the multi-delamination for vibration analysis of multi-
delaminated composite beams. Lee
15
presented free
vibration analysis of a laminated beam with
delamination using a layerwise theory. He derived
equations of motion from the Hamilton's principle,
and developed a finite element method to formulate
the problem.
In this study, bending vibration behaviors of
symmetric composite beams having various
delaminations and orientation angles are investigated
analytically and numerically. The analytical method
for delaminated beams is developed using the
Timoshenko beam theory, which takes into account
shear effect and rotary inertia terms. The
commercially available FEM program, ANSYS, is
used for a numerical solution, and single-edge
delaminated models with contact element for the
laminated composite beams have been formed at
ANSYS. As the analytic results are compared with the
numerical results, it is found to be consistent with
each other.

Material and Methods

Production of composite materials
In this study, glass fabric with 410 tows/m (Metyx

600 tex) was supplied from Telateks. The E-
glass/epoxy composite laminates were fabricated from
unidirectional E-glass fabrics (270 g/m
2
) by the hand
lay-up method at Izoreel Firm, Izmir-Turkey. An
epoxy resin matrix based on CY225 epoxy
prepolymer and HY225 hardener supplied from
Huntsman was used in the production of the
composite laminates. The mixing ratio for resin-to-
hardener in weight was 10:2 and fiber volume fraction
in all laminates was about 60%. The composite
laminates were cured in a lamination press for 2 h, at
120
o
C, at a constant pressure of 0.3 MPa. The
composite laminates were then cooled down to the
room temperature maintaining the pressure.
Composite specimens used in order to obtain the
mechanical properties were cut from the fabricated
composite plates.
An Instron

8801 dynamic fatigue testing machine

with Instron

2663-821 advanced video extensometer

was used for tensile test to determine mechanical
properties of the composites such as elasticity
modulus, rigidity modulus and Poissons ratio. The
mechanical properties obtained of the composites
were given in Table 1.

Analytical method
Free-body diagram and geometry for a beam
element are shown in Fig. 1 for the Timoshenko beam
theory, which accounts for both the rotary inertia and
the shear deformation of the beam. When the
symmetric beam is vibrating transversely, the relation
between the moment equilibrium condition and the
inertial moment of the beam element yields by using
the dynamic equilibrium condition for shearing forces
in the w-direction
16

0
2
3
=

+ dx
t x
w
I dx
x
M
Vdx
yy m
(1)

where V is shearing force, M is internal moment,
m
is density and I
yy
is inertia moment.
From elementary flexural theory, the relationship
between the bending moment and the curvature can
be written as

2
ef yy
ef yy 2
E I
d w
M E I
dx
= = (2)

where the effective elasticity modulus E
ef
is
4

=
=

m
2
3 3
ef x j j j 1 3
j 1
8
E ( E ) ( z z )
h
(3)
Table 1Material properties and dimensions of the laminated
composite beam

Properties Symbol Present Ref.
19-21
Longitudinal elasticity modulus E
1
(MPa) 44150 144800
Transverse elasticity modulus E
2

(MPa) 12300 9650
Shear modulus G
12
(MPa) 4096 4140
Poissons ratio
12
0.2 0.3
Density (kg/m
3
) 2026 1389.23
Length L (mm) 400 381
Height h (mm) 3.3 25.4
Width b (mm ) 20.5 12.7


Fig. 1Free body diagram (FBD) of a deformed beam element
CALLIOGLU & ATLIHAN: VIBRATION ANALYSIS OF DELAMINATED COMPOSITE BEAMS


9
where E
x
is elasticity modulus of j
th
layer, m is the
number of layer of the beam, z
j
is distance between
the outer face of j
th
layer and the neutral plane, h is
high of the beam, as seen in Fig. 2.
The differential equation for the transverse
vibration of the prismatic beams can be written as

2
2
2 2
4
4
4
) , ( ) , (
t
t x w A
t x
w
I
x
t x w
I E
m
yy m yy ef

(4)

where A is cross-sectional area of the beam, the first
term on the right side represents the effect of rotary
inertia.
The slope of the deflection curve depends not only
on the rotation of cross-section of the beam but also
on the shearing deformations. If denote the slope of
the deflection curve when the shearing force is
neglected and the angle of shear at the neutral axis
in the same cross-section, the total slope can be found
as

+ =
dx
dw
(5)

The expressions for the bending moment and the
shearing force are
dx
d
I E M
yy ef

= (6)

AG
dx
dw
k AG k V |

\
|
= =
' '
(7)

in which
'
k is the form factor of the cross-section,
'
k
is 6/5 for rectangular cross-sectional beam, G is the
rigidity modulus.
Eliminating , the differential equation for rotation
and the translatory motion of an element can be given
by

0 1
4
4
'
2
2 2
4
'
2
2
4
4
=

|
|

\
|
+

t
w
G k
I
t x
w
G k
E
I
t
w
A
x
w
I E
yy m ef
yy m m yy ef

(8)

When it is considering a simply-supported beam,
this equation and the boundary conditions are satisfied
by taking

( ) t p B t p A
L
x n
w
n n n n n
sin cos sin + |

\
|
=

(9)


Fig. 2Simply-supported laminated composite beam
INDIAN J ENG. MATER. SCI., FEBRUARY 2011


10
where n is number of mode. A
n
and B
n
are the
constants.

dx
l
x n
x f
p l
B
dx
l
x n
x f
l
A
l
n
n
l
n

sin ) (
2
sin ) (
2
0
2
0
1

=
=
(10)

where ) (
1 0
x f y = and ) (
2 0
x f y = & represent the
initial transverse displacement of any point on the
beam (at time t=0) and initial velocity, respectively.
Substituting Eq. (9) into Eq. (8), the following
equation for calculating the frequencies can be
obtained

0
4
'
2
' 2
2 2 2
2
2
2 2 2
2 2
4
4 4
2
= +

n
m g ef g
n
g
n n
p
G k
r
G k
E
L
r n
p
L
r n
p p
L
n
a

(11)

where
A
I
r
yy
g
= ,
A
I E
a
m
yy ef

=

When the last term, which is a smaller quantity from
the other terms that are the second-order, is neglected
in order to simplify the solution and, to obtain the
effects of rotary inertia and shearing deformations, the
angular frequencies can be written as

(
(

|
|

\
|
+ =
G k
E r
a
p
ef
n
g
n
n
' 2
2 2
2
2
1
2
1
1

(12)

Where
n
L
n
= , L is the length of the beam.

The natural frequencies are

2
n
n
p
= (13)

If there is a delamination in the laminated composite
beam, the following equations can be used
4
:
z
z E
E
s
j
j ef
zd

=
=
1
(14)
( )
ef
t
d
ef zd d
E
A
A
E E E + = (15)

where
zd
E is longitudinal Youngs modulus of a
laminate totally delaminated along one or more
interfaces (imperfect effective elasticity modulus), s
number of sublaminates formed by the delamination,
z
j
thickness of the j
th
sublaminate, E
d
longitudinal
Youngs modulus of a laminate partially delaminated
along one or more interfaces (imperfect effective
elasticity modulus), A
d
delaminated area and A
t
total
interfacial areas.
When the symmetric composite beams are totally
or partially delaminated, instead of the effective
elasticity modulus E
ef
in equations, E
zd
in Eq. (14) or
E
d
in Eq. (15) is used.

Finite element method (FEM)
Finite element method (FEM) known as a powerful
tool for many engineering problems has been used to
compute such as elastic-plastic, residual and thermal
stresses, buckling and vibration analysis. Because of
this, Ansys software that is a commercial FEM
program was preferred for the vibration analysis of
the laminated composite beams.
The Shell 99 element type was selected for 3-D
modeling of solid structures in Ansys 10.0
17
. Initially,
the beams are modeled in order to get a initial
estimation of the undamped natural frequencies
n

and mode shape n. Element type of Shell 99 may be
used for layered applications of a structural shell
model. The element has six degrees of freedom at
each node; translations in the nodal x, y and z
directions and rotations about the nodal x, y and z
axes. This element is constituted by layers that are
designated by numbers (LNlayer number),
increasing from the bottom to the top of the laminate;
the last number quantifies the existent total number of
layers in the laminate (NLtotal number of layers).
The geometry, node locations and the coordinate
system for this element are shown in Fig. 3.
The boundary conditions have been applied on the
nodes, that is to say the dimensions in the x, y and z
coordinates of these nodes are, respectively, 400 mm,
zero and 20.5 mm for 2D, and the displacements and
rotations of all nodes about the y-z plane are also
CALLIOGLU & ATLIHAN: VIBRATION ANALYSIS OF DELAMINATED COMPOSITE BEAMS


11
taken as zero. The model of the laminated composite
beam with sixteen layers is generated. This beam has
delaminated ratios (a/L) varying from 0.1 to 0.9,
where a is delamination length and L length of the
beam. It can be seen from Fig. 4 that the laminated
composite beams having edge or middle delamination
were consisted of three or four areas.
It has firstly been glued area A1 with both areas A2
and A3, but interface of A2 and A3 is not glued in the
beams with edge delamination
18
. In the same way, for
the beams having the middle delamination it has been
glued areas A1 and A4 with areas A2 and A3.
Therefore, delamination has been formed between
areas A2 and A3, as seen in Fig. 4. The double areas
occur at the same coordinates of the interfacial areas
while areas are been meshing. The last, the composite
beams are formed a contact element between areas A2
and A3 so that the areas with the delamination can be
moved together. The contact element is selected as
Contact 174 element type, as seen in Fig. 5. Thus, the
laminated composite beams have been had both edge
and middle delamination. In the same manner, the
composite beams with both edge and middle multiple
delamination can also be consisted.
After the mesh generation process, a delaminated
composite beam with delamination ratio a/L=0.2 has
1000 elements and 2976 nodes. By increasing
delamination ratios, numbers of elements and nodes
of the beams increase. Normal penalty stiffnesses of
the contact element are chosen between 10
4
and 10
9
.

Results and Discussion
In this study, vibration behaviors of laminated
composite beams having simply supported, single-
edge delamination and various stacking sequences are
investigated analytically and numerically. In
analytical solution, Timoshenko beam theory is valid
and in the calculation of the natural frequency, the
effective elasticity modulus

E
ef
for a non-delaminated
beam or the imperfect effective elasticity modulus E
d

or E
zd
for a partially or totally delaminated beam is
used instead of elasticity modulus E in a beam
manufacturing isotropic material. The laminated
composite beams are modeled as single edge
delamination by using Ansys that is a commercial
software program used in the numerical solution
(FEM). Material properties and dimensions of the
laminated composite beam are given in Table 1. The
orientation angles of the beams, as can be seen in Fig.
2, are chosen as []
16
where varies from 0 to 90.
Figure 6 shows the effect of the contact element on
the natural frequency. It can be seen from Figs 6 (a)


Fig. 3Element coordinate system



Fig. 4Laminated composite beams with (a) edge and (b) middle delaminations
INDIAN J ENG. MATER. SCI., FEBRUARY 2011


12
and (b) the variation of the natural frequencies for the
composite delaminated beams without and with
contact elements. As seen from the figures, while the
delaminated laminates of the beams without contact
element separate from one another, the delaminated
laminates of the beams with contact element move
with each other. For example, the frequency values
are obtained as 28.202 Hz and 48.148 Hz in the
delaminated beams with =45, a=320 mm and n=2
for non-contact and contact element, respectively.
When the frequency values are compared with the
ones obtained from analytical solution, the value for
the beam with contact element is very close to the
ones with analytical solution, 47.758 Hz. Thus, as the
delaminated composite beams are modeled, it must
surely be utilized contact elements. It is also very
important choice of the normal penalty stiffness when
the contact element is used.

The effects of the normal penalty stiffnesses on the
natural frequency of a laminated composite for
number of mode n=1 are given in Table 2. The beam
is of orientation angle 45, delamination length a=40
mm. Normal penalty stiffnesses of the contact
element are chosen between 10
4
and 10
9
. As seen in
Table 2, the most compatible normal penalty stiffness
value can approximately be chosen as effective
elasticity modulus of the beam in order to find the
more exact natural frequency and reduce the solution
time. When the stiffnesses are chosen as lower or
larger values than the effective elasticity modulus, the
natural frequencies are obtained as wrong values for
large values of n (as n= 2, 3), and also if the stiffness
values are chosen a larger value the solution time
increases.

Table 3 gives comparison of the natural frequency
values obtained from present analytical method and in
Ref.
19-21
for a [0]
4
simply supported composite beam
without delamination. The frequency values are quite
close to each other.

Variations of the natural frequency values versus
changing orientation angles in the laminated
composite beams with various delamination lengths
are shown in Fig. 7 for number of modes n= 1-3.
It can be seen from the figure that the analytical and



Fig. 5View of a laminated composite beam with (a) contact
element and (b) boundary conditions and mesh shape


Fig. 6Mode shape of a laminated composite beam with (a) noncontact element and (b) contact element for the mode number n=2
CALLIOGLU & ATLIHAN: VIBRATION ANALYSIS OF DELAMINATED COMPOSITE BEAMS


13
numerical frequency values are very close to each
other. The values in non-delaminated and delaminated
beams decrease more and more by increasing
orientation angle from 0 until about 52 whereas after
=52 the values increase very slowly, as seen in Fig.
7. As expected, the natural frequencies decrease with
increase in delamination lengths. The largest frequency
value is obtained for both non-delaminated and
delaminated beams with orientation angle 0. For
example, the frequency =43.225 Hz. can be seen
from Fig. 7b for =0, n=1 and a=40 mm.
Figure 8 shows the natural frequencies obtained
from the numerical analysis (ANSYS) for the beam
with orientation angle =0, delamination length a=320
mm and number of modes n=1-3. It is seen from this
figures that when number of modes increase,
amplitudes decrease whereas natural frequencies
increase. It is obtained that the natural frequency values
for n=1-3 are, respectively, 23.239 Hz., 109.625 Hz.
and 232.873 Hz.

Conclusions
In this study, the natural frequencies of the simply
supported composite beams with single-edge
delamination are investigated analytically and
numerically. In the analytical solution, Timoshenko
beam theory is used. In numerical solution, ANSYS
finite element code is used and when the beams are
modeled, the contact elements and the values of the
normal penalty stiffness are defined. The following
conclusion can be drawn:
(i) It is obtained that the natural frequencies decrease
when length of delaminations on the beam
increase.
Table 2Natural frequency values for different normal penalty
stiffness for =45, a=40 mm and n=1

Normal penalty stiffness (FKN) Natural frequency (Hz)
10
4
23.036
10
5
23.036
10
6
23.037
10
7
23.047
10
8
23.104
10
9
24.140
Table 3Comparison of natural frequencies of a [0]
4
composite
beam without delamination

(kHz)
Mode (n)
Ref.
19
Ref.
20
Ref.
21
Present
1 0.753 0.755 0.756 0.756


Fig. 7Variations of the natural frequencies with orientation angle
for beams with (a) a=0 mm, (b) a=40 mm and (c) a=320 mm


Fig. 8The natural frequency values in the delaminated beam
having =0 and a=320 mm for n=1-3

INDIAN J ENG. MATER. SCI., FEBRUARY 2011


14
(ii) It is also obtained that the natural frequencies
change with the change of orientation angle.
(iii) In the finite element solution, the contact elements
must surely be used in delaminated region in order
to obtain natural frequency in the delaminated
beams.
(iv) The normal penalty stiffness of the contact
element can be chosen as the effective elasticity
modulus of the laminated composite beams.
(v) It is found that the frequency values obtained from
the numerical result with contact element and
normal penalty stiffness, which is equal to the
effective elasticity modulus, are approximately the
same with the ones in the analytical solution.

Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Pamukkale
University Scientific Research Council supporting
this study under Project Contract No. 2008FBE008.

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