Parametric study on the damping of sandwich composite beams

The damping property of sandwich structures is vital for the structural design since it influences the noise and vibration behavior. In this paper, the damping properties of the sandwich structures are computed using the strain energy method. The influences of the fiber orientation for the facing, the shear stiffness and thickness of the core are studied. Three groups of sandwich composite beams are produced and their damping properties are measured. The three groups include the different core thickness, different fiber orientation and different core properties. Through the experimental validation, the strain energy method proved to be able to accurately predict the loss factors of sandwich beams. In addition, it is found that increasing core thickness increases the loss factor; the loss factor has a maximum value when fiber orientation is 45 or 30; the lower shear stiffness of the core is beneficial for the damping of sandwich structures.