Damping behavior of discontinuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites

Abstract

Discontinuous fiber reinforced composites are being used in many antivibration applications due to their time and temperature dependent specific mechanical properties. For utilization of this material to specific engineering applications there is a need to understand the damping behavior of composites under dynamic loading. For this work, unreinforced and 20% long and short reinforced glass fiber polypropylene composite materials were tested for free transverse vibration damping characteristics under static as well as fatigue loading conditions. The damping characteristics are quantified by decay pattern and natural frequency. Presence of reinforced fibers increases the damping capacity. Among reinforcements, short fiber reinforced polypropylene shows increased damping capacity then long glass fiber reinforced polypropylene. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.