Abstract
Vacuum‐assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) process was used to fabricate the nanocomposites through integrating carbon nanofiber paper into traditional glass fiber reinforced composites. The carbon nanofiber paper had a porous structure with highly entangled carbon nanofibers and short glass fibers. In this study, the carbon nanofiber paper was employed as an interlayer and surface layer of composite laminates to enhance the damping properties. Experiments conducted using the nanocomposite beam indicated up to 200–700% increase of the damping ratios at higher frequencies. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) characterization of the carbon nanofiber paper and the nanocomposites was also conducted to investigate the impregnation of carbon nanofiber paper by the resin during the VARTM process and the mechanics of damping augmentation. The study showed a complete penetration of the resin through the carbon nanofiber paper. The connectivities between carbon nanofibers and short glass fibers within the carbon nanofiber paper were responsible for the significant energy dissipation in the nanocomposites during the damping tests.
Highlights
In recent years, nanoparticles have been attracting increasing attention in the composite community as they are capable of improving the mechanical and physical properties of traditional fiber reinforced composites [1,2,3,4]
From the sweep sine responses, it can be clearly seen that the peaks of first mode, second mode, and third mode are significantly reduced for the nanocomposite beam, which indicates that the nanocomposite beam has improved damping property
This paper presented the damping tests conducted using the nanocomposite beams with an embedded carbon nanofiber paper as interlayer or surface layer
Summary
Nanoparticles have been attracting increasing attention in the composite community as they are capable of improving the mechanical and physical properties of traditional fiber reinforced composites [1,2,3,4]. The addition of small size and low loading of carbon nanotubes and carbon nanofibers can enhance the matrix-dominated properties of composites, such as stiffness, fracture toughness, and interlaminar shear strength [5,6,7,8,9]. They have proven to be excellent additives to impart electrical conductivity in nanocomposites at lower loadings due to their high electrical conductivity and aspect ratio [10,11,12]. The manufacturing via VARTM and the investigation of the damping properties and tensile properties of the fabricated nanocomposites are described
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