Experimental study on the vibrational response and damping of short fibre/unidirectional PEEK hybrid composites
James Pheysey, Natalia Mazancova, Francesco De Cola, David García Cava, Francisca Martínez-Hergueta
Abstract
This study investigates the vibrational performance of a new generation of hybrid composites based on a short fibre core for structural dynamic applications. The dynamic characterisation was conducted through dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and the free vibration of a cantilever beam at different lengths. The short fibre composite exhibited a superior specific damping capacity, producing a maximum damping of 0.42. The values extracted from DMA indicated no visco-plastic contribution from the PEEK resin system, implying that the internal microarchitecture drives the material damping, with friction at the fibre/matrix interface being the primary dissipation mechanism. The hybrid laminate presented an improvement in damping performance of 39% due to the addition of the short fibre core compared to a baseline quasi-isotropic laminate of similar flexural stiffness. These findings show hybridisation’s advantages in designing structural components with improved damping performance and reduced cost for a variety of dynamic applications in industries such as automotive.