Effects of Randomness on Band Gap Formation in Models of Fiber-Reinforced Composite Panels Having Quasirandom Fiber Arrangements

Large-scale deterministic simulations are performed in order to observe the band gap formation in composite models having quasirandom fiber arrangements. Unidirectional fiber-reinforced composite panels are modeled in two-dimensional space with quasirandom fiber arrangements that can be qualified as “essentially regular with slight randomness.” Different quasirandom fiber arrangements are computationally generated using the same control parameters. Statistical parameters are used to quantitatively describe the fiber arrangements. Subsequently, a series of arrangements is generated from each base line arrangement by scaling up the coordinates of fiber centers, while the fiber diameter remains unchanged in order to study the effects of fiber spacing. Simulation results are compared with the corresponding case of ideally regular fiber arrangement. The most interesting observation is that the slight randomness in the fiber arrangements enhances the band gap phenomenon by introducing a few secondary band gaps adjacent to the primary band gap.