Free Vibration Analysis of Layered Beams with Delamination Damage : An ANSYS®-Based FEM Investigation

Identifying delamination has been a focal point for many researchers. The reason for this interest arises from criticality of delamination in a variety of industries: automotive, aerospace, and construction. Therefore, vibration-based damage identification method is applied to detect, locate and characterize the damage in a mechanical structure. In this method, natural frequency as a diagnostic tool to determine the integrity of a structure has been utilized. The current research presents a FEM-based investigation into free vibrational analysis of defective layered beams with free mode delamination. It is shown that the size, type and location of delamination directly influence system non-dimensional frequencies. Based on an existing 1D model, the investigation is extended to 2D modelling for single-and-double-delamination cases. In each case, Fixed-Fixed and cantilevered beam configurations, both centred and off-centred delamination conditions are studied. Further, a 3D model is also developed for single delamination of a Fixed-Fixed beam. All simulation results show excellent agreement with the data available in the literature. The ANSYS ® FEM-based modelling approach presented here is general and accurately predicts delamination effects on the frequency response of beam structures.