Vibro-acoustic response of a clamped rectangular sandwich panel in thermal environment

Composite sandwich structures are extensively applied in the automotive, marine and aircraft industries owing to their superior stiffness-to-weight ratio. This paper is concentrated on the vibro-acoustic characteristics of a clamped rectangular sandwich panel in high temperature environments. The analytical solution of vibration and acoustic responses for the fully clamped boundary condition is derived. Firstly, natural frequencies and corresponding modes in thermal environment are derived using the piecewise shear deformation theory. Thermal buckling temperatures and corresponding modes are obtained to investigate the buckling characteristics of the sandwich panel. The vibration response is acquired by applying the mode superposition method. The sound pressure distribution is derived by applying the Rayleigh integral, and the sound radiation efficiency is obtained in sequence. Sound transmission loss (STL) of the sandwich panel is also obtained in theory. Next, numerical simulations and experimental result are carried out to verify the accuracy of the analytical solutions. Finally, focus is placed on the influence of several key parameters including temperature, boundary condition, thickness of the core and dimension of the sandwich on vibro-acoustic characteristics of sandwich panel.