The Development of Analytical Models for Predicting Viscoelastic Damping in Woven Fabric-Reinforced Polymer Matrix Composites

Abstract

Abstract This paper describes the development of a closed-form model and a finite element model for studying viscoelastic damping in woven fabric-reinforced polymer matrix composites. The closed-form model was obtained by first deriving an elastic solution based on the mechanics of materials theory, then applying the Elastic-Viscoelastic Correspondence Principle to the elastic solution. The damping loss factors were determined from the complex moduli. Three-dimensional finite element models with various mesh densities were constructed based on the actual geometry of a plain weave fabric-reinforced composite unit cell. Three different loading cases were designed to simulate extensional, shear and bending deformations of the unit cell. The strain energies stored in the fiber and matrix elements for each loading case were conveniently determined from the finite element analysis. A strain energy formulation was used to calculate the damping loss factors for each loading case. Experiments were conducted using an impulse-frequency response technique to measure damping in beam samples made of plain weave E-glass fabric-reinforced vinyl ester resin matrix composite. The predictions from both analytical models show reasonably good agreement with experimental data.