Viscoelastic Properties of PEEK-IM7 Related to Temperature

Damping is a very important parameter for the design and analysis of many structures. Thus, understanding damping in composite laminates has become a topic of great interest. Unfortunately, the parameters that completely characterize a transversely isotropic viscoelastic material are difficult to obtain experimentally and, thus, only limited viscoelastic property data is presently available. Recently, an approach leading to the complete 3-D viscoelastic characterization of transversely isotropic materials using a reduced number of measured parameters was developed. This study assesses the feasibility of the use of the approach developed to perform viscoelastic property measurements, over a temperature range. Viscoelastic properties of a PEEK-IM7 lamina are determined for the temperature range of 20 to 120 C. After the material characterization is complete, the properties determined are used to predict the viscoelastic properties of a given off-axis beam and the results are then compared with experimentally measured values, for the same angle, for verification. All experiments are conducted with subscale specimens, using a Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer.