Damping Loss Factor Determination of Glass and Graphite Fiber Composites

Abstract

Material damping of laminated composites is experimentally determined using a cantilever beam test with an impulse excitation. Data acquisition and manipulation is carried out using both an IBM PC-AT and a GenRad 2500 Series FFT Analyzer. Unidirectional continuous fiber 0 and 90 degree laminates were fabricated from glass/epoxy (Hercules S2-Glass/3501-6), graphite/epoxy (Hercules AS4/3501-6) and graphite/polyetheretherketone (ICI AS4/PEEK (APC-2)) to investigate the effect of fiber and matrix properties as a function of frequency, up to 1000 Hz., on the damping of composites. The S2-glass/3501-6 composite had a higher loss factor than the AS4/3501-6 exhibiting a linear increase with increasing frequency and the loss factor for the S2-glass varying nonlinearly with frequency. The 90 degree material exhibited a higher damping loss factor than the 0 degree, varying nonlinearly with increasing frequency. In the 90 degree orientation, the glass fiber composite had loss factors that was approximately a factor of 2 greater than the 0 degree orientation. The 0 degree AS4/PEEK had a loss factor that was approximately equal to that of the 0 degree AS4/3501-6. The 90 degree AS4/PEEK had a loss factor that was approximately 50% less than the AS4/3501-6 and 25% greater than the S2-glass/3501-6. Keywords: Vibration damping; Structural composites; Joints; Shipbuilding.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 1989
Accession Number
ADA214535

Entities

People

  • Jojn W. Gillespie Jr
  • Roger M. Crane

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Cantilever Beams
  • Composite Materials
  • Data Acquisition
  • Eddy Currents
  • Fabrication
  • Fibers
  • Frequency
  • Geometry
  • Graphitic Materials
  • Laminates
  • Materials
  • Materials Laboratories
  • Materials Processing
  • Materials Science
  • Orientation (Direction)
  • Resonant Frequency

Fields of Study

  • Education
  • Materials science

Readers

  • Acoustics.
  • Reinforced Composite Materials
  • Structural Health Monitoring of Composite Structures.