Validation of a vibration based identification procedure for layered materials

Layered materials are becoming increasingly important for the production of high performance components and constructions. Their stiffness properties are fundamental to assess stress fields during design calculations. A testing method to assess the in-plane elastic properties of each individual layer of a laminate has been developed [1]. The proposed procedure is based on a multi-model updating routine, in which the elastic properties of the finite element models of the test samples are simultaneously updated. Once the finite element models reproduce the measured resonance frequencies, the updating procedure is halted, and the elastic properties of the different layers can be retrieved from the finite element model’s database. This paper focuses on the experimental validation of this new measurement procedure. The validation is carried out by measuring the elastic properties of a reference material, i.e. a layered material of which the elastic properties of the layers are known. The used reference material was obtained by gluing a stainless steel sheet to a brass sheet.