Free vibration analysis of sandwich plates with cut-outs: An experimental and numerical study with artificial neural network modelling

This article presents a comprehensive study on the free vibration and damping behaviour of sandwich plates with cut-outs based on experimental and numerical approaches. The effects of the shape, size, and position of the cut-outs on the dynamic response of the sandwich plates under various boundary conditions are explored. Subsequently, artificial neural network (ANN) models are developed utilizing the obtained experimental and numerical data to predict the sandwich plate's natural frequencies and modal loss factors for different cut-outs configurations. The ANN models are trained and tested using a large dataset, and their accuracy is evaluated using various statistical measures. Moreover, a graphical user interface (GUI) is designed using the developed ANN models to provide a user-friendly tool for predicting the modal characteristics of the sandwich plate with cut-outs. The developed ANN models demonstrated high accuracy in predicting the free vibration properties of the sandwich plates under different boundary conditions and cut-out configurations. The combination of experimental and numerical analyses with ANN models and a user-friendly GUI provides a practical and efficient solution for evaluating the dynamic behaviour of sandwich plates with cut-outs, which can be useful for design optimization and structural health monitoring in engineering applications.