Passive vibration damping of CFRP with PZT and SMA particles

Abstract

Carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) has been widely used for various industrial areas such as aerospace, automotive, civil engineering and leisure and sports goods industries because of its high strength-to-weight ratio, low density, good thermal properties and other great mechanical properties. However, in spite of these advantages, it is not suitable for some structures that have to endure much vibration due to its low damping capacity. Therefore, some researchers have been conducted about improving a damping capability of CFRP composites recently. In this research, the piezoelectric ceramic particles used as a functional particle which accelerates the loss of the vibration energy. Shape memory alloy (SMA) is commonly known as a kind of hyperelastic materials, which can improve the damping capacity of the CFRP. When the shape of the materials is changed, its phase and crystal structure are changed, therefore, the mechanical energy is converted into the thermal energy as a result. This study covers CFRP composites, which have a high damping capacity with lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramic particles and SMA powder dispersed between carbon fiber and epoxy matrix. The loss factor (tanδ) is measured using dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA) to verify the structure change in vibration damping. Experimental results show that the vibration damping of CFRP containing PZT and SMA is higher than that of conventional materials. We also found that the dispersion of particles inside the CFRP is an important factor in improving vibration damping. In order to improve the dispersion of PZT and SMA particles in CFRP, we fabricated a thin resin film with dispersed particles. Because of applying this to CFRP, it is confirmed that the increase of dispersion degree positively affects vibration damping improvement. The 0-3 composites were modeled containing PZT and SMA particles and performed computational analysis on various parameters to verify the experimental results and optimize the parameters.