Determination of the effect of adhesive fillets and viscous damping on the dynamic response of aluminum honeycomb sandwich panels

The dynamic characteristics of an aluminum honeycomb sandwich panel are experimentally determined under free boundary conditions and the computational model is updated according to the experimental results. The study confirms that the adhesives used to bond the core and face sheets affect the dynamic response of the sandwich panel through the adhesive fillets formed between the face sheets and the core during the bonding process. The viscous damping of the structure is also determined by experimental modal analysis. It is observed that the results of the experimental and computational results agree well when the effects of adhesive fillets and viscous damping are considered. Furthermore, a dynamic response analysis under random vibration is conducted to reveal the differences between the results of the initial and the updated models.