Dynamic and Static Behavior of Bi-Stable Hybrid [0/AL/90]T and Pure Composite [02/902]T Laminates

In this paper, static and dynamic behavior of a bi-stable hybrid composite laminates with [0/AL/90]T stacking sequence was studied and was compared to bi-stable pure composite laminate [02/902]T of the same thickness. Curvatures and out of plane displacement, and snap through static load were investigated using a quasi-static loading on a UTM machine. In addition, viscous damping ratio, natural frequency, and critical base excitation that caused snapping between two different stable shapes were determined using impact hammer excitation and shaker base excitation. The load carrying capabilities, to reach the snap through, increased dramatically with the hybrid composite laminate. A slight variation was observed in the eigen frequencies between the two composite laminates, while the it was found that the critical excitations in the hybrid bi-stable composite laminate are almost double in comparison to the pure laminate.