Multiscale simulation and experimental analysis of damping in CFRP structures containing rubber

This paper gives an intuitive numerical multi-scale method to estimate damping in anisotropic viscoelastic hybrid composite structures using finite element analysis. Different CFRP-R (CFRP with Rubber) architectures, both microstructural and macrostructural, are studied and compared in order to maximize damping but also to minimize rigidity loss. Homogenization by virtual DMA in frequency domain is performed on representative volume elements (RVE) to obtain the effective viscoelastic behaviour of every hybrid microstructure. The effective behaviours are used to define mechanical behaviour of laminates on which vibratory simulations are performed. Interesting and advanced simulations are discussed regarding materials parameters and geometrical aspects and are compared to experimental results.