PRELIMINARY IDENTIFICATIONS OF SANDWICH PANELS

Sandwich panels are extensively analyzed and used in the transportation field due to their specific strength and stiffness values, higher than the metal homogeneous. Often, it is highlighted that one of the main drawbacks is related to their increased acoustic emissions, which especially in the past has limited their use in the application where a high level of comfort is required. In the last decade, new types of core for sandwich panels have been designed to obtain good structural and acoustical performances. In order to create a reference for future analysis on new configurations of truss-core, in the present study the experimental modal analysis on sandwich panels with honeycomb and foam cores is carried out in the low-mid frequency range. The results obtained from modal analysis are used to estimate the acoustic power radiated by both panels. The first non-linear test is presented as well. The panels’ faces are in carbon/epoxy so that all the attention is concentrated on the cores, which represent the variables to be investigated. This activity has been developed inside the framework offered by the SUPERPANELS project (www.superpanels.unina.it).