Evaluation of the damping of hybrid carbon–flax reinforced composites

The object of the paper is to investigate the effects of staking sequences and hybridation on the damping properties of flax–carbon twill epoxy composites. Various staking sequences of these hybrid laminates were manufactured by platen press process. Next, dynamic properties were investigated using beam test specimens and an impulse technique. Damping modelling was implemented by using a finite element analysis to evaluate the dissipated energies in each layer of carbon–flax laminates. The obtained results show a good agreement between the experimental damping coefficients and those deduced from modelling. It is also shown that the position of flax layers within the hybrid composites plays a major role on their bending stiffness and damping properties.