Title

Carbon Nanopaper Sheets For Damping Applications: Processing And Characterization

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes and carbon nanofibers have been used as nanofillers for high performance damping composite materials in recent years. The large specific area (1000 m2/g) and aspect ratio (>1000) of carbon nanotubes and nanofibers promote significant interfacial friction between carbon nanotubes/nanofibers and the polymer matrix. The high stiffness and strength of carbon nanotubes and nanofibers enlarge the differences in the strains of individual constituents of the composites, which causes much higher energy dissipation in the polymer matrix. However, adding small amount of carbon nanotubes and nanofibers will significant increase the viscosity of polymer resin, which makes the dispersion and resin flow through the porous fiber mats extremely difficult. In addition, the fiber mats will filter carbon nanotubes and nanofibers during liquid molding process such as Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) and Vacuum-Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (VARTM). A unique concept of manufacturing nanocomposites with carbon nanotube/nanofiber based nanopaper sheets for structural damping applications has recently been explored. This approach involves making carbon nanopaper sheet by the filtration of well-dispersed carbon nanotubes and carbon nanofibers under controlled processing conditions. Subsequently, carbon nanopaper sheets are integrated into composite laminates using Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (VARTM) process. In this study, several nanocomposite plates were fabricated with carbon nanopaper sheet as surface layer. For the comparative study, the regular composite plates without carbon nanopaper sheet were also fabricated. To identify the damping characteristics of each specimen, the Frequency Response Function (FRF) was estimated by a pair of piezoceramic patches: one as an actuator to excite the specimen and the other as a sensor to detect the induced vibrations. From the FRF, the damping ratio of the specimen at each modal frequency of interests was calculated. The experimental results clearly show a significant improvement of damping properties of nanocomposites plates. This research demonstrates structural damping enhancement via carbon nanopaper sheets and provided basic understanding of the damping characteristics for the optimal design and fabrication of high performance damping composites, which have the potential to be used as structural components for many applications. Copyright © 2007 by ASME.

Publication Date

5-30-2008

Publication Title

ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, Proceedings

Volume

13

Number of Pages

71-76

Document Type

Article; Proceedings Paper

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1115/IMECE2007-41914

Socpus ID

44349147252 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/44349147252

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