Modification of the dynamic damping behaviour of jute/vinylester composites with latex interlayer

This paper reports the tailoring of jute reinforced composites for damping by the use of a suitable interlayer. The interlayer helped to improve the damping capacity of the composites, with a lowering in the stiffness values. In this work, jute cloths were taken and roller-coated with SBR latex, dried and used as reinforcement in vinylester resin matrix composites to develop interlayer jute composite. Untreated composites were prepared with 35 wt.% of jute content and 65 wt.% of resin content. In the latex interlayer composites, 30% of the matrix vinylester resin was replaced by latex, while the jute content was same. Tensile properties of the latex interlayer composites were compared with the untreated jute reinforced composites. The tensile strength and tensile modulus were lowered by 66% and 93% respectively in case of the interlayer composites compared to the uncoated ones, but the energy absorption increased by 183%. The interlayer composites showed high loss modulus values at room temperature. The damping parameter of the interlayer composites were found to be much higher than the untreated composites, which indicated their suitability for high damping applications.