Vibration and damping characteristics of hybrid carbon fiber composite pyramidal truss sandwich panels with viscoelastic layers

The vibration and damping performances of hybrid carbon fiber composite pyramidal truss sandwich panels with viscoelastic layers embedded in the face sheets were investigated in this paper. Hybrid carbon fiber composite pyramidal truss sandwich panels containing different thickness of viscoelastic layers were manufactured using a hot press molding method. Analytical models based on modal strain energy approach were developed using ABAQUS software to estimate the damping property of the hybrid sandwich structures. A set of modal tests were carried out to investigate the vibration and damping characteristics of such hybrid sandwich panels with or without viscoelastic layers. The damping loss factors of composite slender beams with different fiber orientations were tested to determine the constitutive damping properties of parent materials for such hybrid sandwich panels. The numerical simulation results showed good agreement with the experimental tests. The damping loss factors of hybrid sandwich panels increased distinctly compared with previous sandwich panels due to the viscoelastic layer embedded in the face sheets.