Viscoelastic damping of particle and fiber reinforced composite materials

Abstract

An analytical model is proposed for the analysis of viscoelastic damping in two-phase composite materials. The model is based on the coupling of the Mori–Tanaka [Acta Metall. 21, 571–574 (1973)] mean-field approach for the elastic behavior of composite materials with the viscoelastic correspondence principle to yield predictions for the complex viscoelastic moduli. Predictions are obtained for composites containing viscoelastic reinforcement that is either aligned, randomly oriented, or planar randomly oriented. Explicit expressions for the real and imaginary components of the effective moduli are presented for the technologically important case of an isotropic viscoelastic matrix containing elastic reinforcement. The analytical predictions for the complex bulk modulus of isotropic composites and the plane-strain bulk modulus of transversely isotropic composites are shown to lie on or within the bounds of Gibiansky and Milton [Proc. R. Soc. London Ser. A 440, 163–188 (1993)] for all reinforcement shapes and concentrations. Finally, a parametric study is carried out in the form of stiffness-loss maps for a wide range of composite microstructural geometries representative of technologically important material systems.