A simplified approach to model damping behaviour of interleaved carbon fibre laminates

Interleaving a viscoelastic layer within a laminate has been individuated as an efficient architecture for increasing damping performance of plane structures. A semi-analytical model based on the first order shear deformation theory accounting for the out-of–plane strain contributions to the energy dissipation in composite laminates with interleaved architecture is proposed. Two different configurations for the interleaved composite laminate architecture have been manufactured and tested in bending. The elastic and dissipative material functions for the elongational and shear modes have been experimentally characterised for the constituents of the interleaved laminates: the unidirectional lamina and the damping layer material. These constitutive material behaviours have been used for the model calculations. A satisfactorily agreement between the experimental data and predicted results has been found for the bending behaviour of the different architectures.