Damping of carbon fibre and flax fibre reinforced angle ply polymers

The objective of this paper was to understand the damping of carbon- and flax-fibre reinforce polymers. We analysed carbon and flax symmetric angle ply laminates for a series of layup angles of 0°, ±10°, ±20°, ±30°, ±60°, 90°. We measured both series using dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and vibration beam measurements (VBM). Our results showed that the VBM and DMA elastic results can be converted from one into the other, and we found a mathematical formulation to relate the damping results of both. We discussed the underlining mathematical models of each measurement method and the physical interpretation. For both methods, we relate the elastic properties to the elastic modulus and the damping properties to the specific damping capacity (SDC), ψ. We concluded that within a certain frequency range micro-mechanical (DMA) and macro-mechanical (VBM) damping may be compared and even converted into one another.