Miscellaneous Modeling Approaches and Testing of a Satellite Honeycomb Sandwich Plate

The honeycomb sandwich structures are commonly and efficiently adopted in the development of light mass satellite structures as a result of their inherent high stiffness and strength properties. Through a comprehensive study, the equivalent finite element modeling of honeycomb sandwich structures utilizing miscellaneous modeling approaches is introduced. For the sake of validating results, both theoretical analysis and experimental modal testing are implemented upon a honeycomb sandwich plate utilizing free-free boundary conditions. Based on the results, the sandwich theory and its related shell-volume-shell approach introduce a good match with the experimental results. The aforementioned approach is utilized extensively during the process of satellite structural design and modeling. In addition, a parametric study is executed so as to relate the geometric and material variations to the resonant modal frequencies. The study results indicate a crucial influence of both honeycomb core and facing sheets thicknesses on the modal frequency values.