The Effects of the Aspect Ratio on Natural Frequency of the Advanced Composite Materials Road Structures

Abstract

PURPOSES :Current theories for composite structures are too difficult for design engineers for construction. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate to the practicing engineers, how to apply the advanced composite materials theory to the road structures. METHODS :Some laminate orientations have decreasing values of , , and stiffnesses as the ply number increases. The plate aspect ratio considered is from 1 to 5. In order to study the effect of on the equilibrium equations, two cases are considered. term is considered or neglected. RESULTS :Most of the road structures have high aspect ratios, for such cases further simplification is possible by neglecting the effect of the longitudinal moment terms. CONCLUSIONS :Most of the road structures have plate aspect ratios higher than 2. It is concluded that, for all boundary conditions, neglecting the longitudinal moment terms is acceptable if the aspect ratio (a/b) is equal to or higher than 2. This conclusion gives good guide line for design of the road structures. Keywords advanced composite materials, aspect ratio, natural frequencies, simple method of vibration analysis