Characterisation of Composite Material Properties by an Inverse Technique

An inverse technique based on vibration tests to characterise isotropic, orthotropic and viscoelastic material properties of advanced composites is developed. An optimisation using the planning of experiments and response surface technique to minimise the error functional is applied to decrease considerably computational expenses. The inverse technique developed is tested on aluminium plates and applied to characterise orthotropic material properties of laminated composites and viscoelastic core material properties of sandwich composites.