VIBRATION ANALYSIS OF HONEYCOMB SANDWICH PANEL IN SPACECRAFT STRUCTURE

A Spacecraft structure has a cuboid construction and is composed of central cylinder and a number of interconnected honeycomb sandwich panels. A spacecraft structure accommodates all electronic packages and provides adequate strength and stiffness to withstand the launch loads. A honeycomb sandwich panel is made up of aluminum honeycomb core joined with aluminium face sheets using adhesive. A spacecraft experiences various types of loads during its launch such as vibration, acoustic and shock loads. The spacecraft structure is designed to withstand the launch vibration environment. It is essential to perform dynamic analyses to obtain the dynamic characteristics of the panel like natural frequencies, mode shapes and acceleration responses at different locations. The present work involves normal modes and transient analyses of honeycomb sandwich panels. The objective of this project is to predict the vibration response of honeycomb sandwich panels due to dynamic loads. The modal analysis, transient response analysis of the honeycomb sandwich panel has been done by using Msc Nastran/Patran and the natural frequency from the simulation results compared with the analytical results.