Design Concept of GF/PP Foam Laminates. 1st Report. Influence of Density on Flexural Properties and Vibration Damping Properties.

Abstract

Matrix hybrid composites to improve mechanical properties and vibration damping properties at the same time have been proposed. High damping properties were confirmed by improving flexibility of matrix resin system and it has been confirmed to appear the shear deformation in the flexible matrix layer to be easy. This concept is applied to fiber/matrix interface, and the composite material that forms a flexible interphase has been developed. The porous material where the gap lies can improve the vibration damping. By setting up the gap in the composite material, it is also possible to urge the shear deformation, for high vibration damping to appear, and to reduce the weight of the structure. Therefore, this method is extremely effective to a high specific strength and a high specific rigidity. In this research, GF/PP foam composite materials which was the porous material had the structure to fix the glass fiber with the polypropylene was targeted. The flexural properties and the vibration damping properties that these possessed were examined based on the density distribution by which the foam rate was changed. In addition, the GF/PP foam sandwich laminates was proposed and the influence that the density distribution in skin and the core layer gave to various mechanical properties was examined.