Enhancing damping features of advanced polymer composites by micromechanical hybridization

A hybrid configuration at the micromechanical level is presented and described as a suitable approach to enhance the damping features of advanced polymer composites. A micro-level hybridization was achieved on dry preform reinforcements by embedding visco-elastic fibres within standard carbon tows. Unidirectional composites with two viscoelastic volume fractions (2.5% and 5% vol/vol) were manufactured by a vacuum infusion process and later tested by dynamic mechanical analysis along the principal directions. Final results reveal a significant enhancement (+80% and +56%) of the damping properties, respectively, for the longitudinal and the transverse directions in the case of the highest viscoelastic fibre content. In turn, the elastic properties of the final composite were greatly reduced (37% and 35%) with respect to the standard composite. Final results support further work in the direction of micromechanical hybridization looking at the potential exploitation of standard textile configurations with different viscoelastic fibre content to enhance damping properties.