Effects of PZT particle-enhanced ply interfaces on the vibration damping behavior of CFRP composites

In this study, vibration damping behavior of carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites was investigated when ply interfaces were enhanced by lead zirconate titanate (PZT) particles. The influence of particle loading and carbon black coating of particles was analyzed using the dynamic mechanical analysis. When plain PZT particles were distributed in the ply interfaces, the loss factor increased but suddenly dropped with increased particle loading, producing a threshold effect. As the loss factor represents the joule heat of electric current between PZT particles and carbon fibers, the sudden drop implies that there exists incomplete connectivity. To demonstrate the effect of incomplete connectivity, plain PZT particles were coated with carbon black of various weight fraction and the experiments were repeated. The results show there exists an optimal coating ratio of carbon black where the loss factor reaches its maximum value. When the optimal coating was applied to plain PZT particles, the loss factors of composites continuously increased, eliminating the threshold effect.