Identification of temperature-dependent elastic and damping parameters of carbon–epoxy composite plates based on experimental modal data

High-strength composite materials are receiving increased attention within the aerospace and transportation industries. These materials, although light in weight, still impart high stiffness when compared to conventional structural materials, e.g., aluminum and steel. Fibers and matrix are the basic constituents of composite materials. During high-speed maneuvering of aircraft and high-speed trains, the composite materials are subjected to dynamic loads in changing temperatures. The dynamic behavior of composites strongly depends on the ambient thermal environment. Furthermore, during the in-situ operation, the quantification of real-time dynamic loads is a challenging task. Therefore, the experimental investigation of the dynamic behavior of several carbon-fiber epoxy laminated composite plates at different temperatures, namely 0°C, 25°C, 50°C, 75°C, 100°C, and 125°C, is carried out using operational modal analysis, to identify the modal characteristics of the structure, and the temperature-dependent modal data of the tested composite plates is given in the supplementary data. The temperature-dependent elastic and damping parameters of the carbon–epoxy laminate are estimated using a genetic algorithm-based parameter identification scheme for different sets of modal contribution. A combined experimental and numerical simulation procedure is implemented to estimate deterministic material parameters at different temperatures. To obtain the in-situ material parameters for a given operating frequency range, the modal contribution is selected such that the operating frequency of interest lies within the considered resonance modes. As an example of matrix-dominated elastic parameter, the shear modulus, has been found to degrade significantly with increasing temperature, and shown a strong correlation with temperature.