Original Article

Journal of Reinforced Plastics

and Composites

Complex stiffness method for damping 0(0) 1–10

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DOI: 10.1177/0731684417709617
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Hang Yu and Chuwei Zhou

Abstract
Damping is a significant feature of the dynamic behavior of composites to control resonant response. While some
methods work effectively in forecasting the damping of laminated composites, few damping prediction approaches have
been developed for woven composites. Based on the elastic-viscoelastic correspondence principle, an effective method
called the complex stiffness method is presented to determine the damping properties of woven composites. The effect
of damping of fiber phase in fiber tows is considered to improve the accuracy of the predictions. Experiments were
performed to validate the proposed model and good agreements are achieved between test data and predictions.

Keywords
Woven composites, damping properties, complex stiffness, free flexure vibration

Earlier analytical methods on damping properties of

Introduction
Woven composites consist of interlaced warp and weft
tows.1,2 Figure 1 illustrates the weave architecture of a
typical woven composite. Weft tows (green) are
stretched straight and orthogonal warp tows (yellow)
go through different weft layers in undulate to interlock
them as an integral reinforcement. When woven com-
posites are used in structural applications, they are
expected to experience vibration environment in
which damping is an important feature of their
dynamic behaviors. Effective methods for damping pre-
diction of woven composites should be built for the
improvement of their dynamic analysis,3,4 vibration
and sound control.5–8
Damping properties of polymer matrix/glass fiber
unidirectional composites depend on the viscoelastic
nature of matrix and/or fiber materials, damping of
fiber–matrix interface, damping due to damage includ-
ing frictional damping and energy dissipation in the
area of matrix cracks and broken fibers, viscoplastic
damping caused by high stress level and thermoelastic
damping due to cyclic heat flow from regions of com-
pressive stress to regions of tensile stress.9 If undam-
aged polymer composites vibrate at small amplitudes,
viscoelastic damping seems to be dominant contribu-
tion to the damping of composites.10 Thus, only visco-
elastic damping is considered in this study.
composites mainly focused the attention on laminated
composites. Adams and Bacon3 and Adams et al.4
developed a strain energy theory to forecast the effect-
ive damping properties of laminated composites. The
specific damping capacity (SDC) , defined by Adams
et al., is

U
¼ ð1Þ
U
where
U and U are strain energy dissipated and the
maximum strain energy during a stress cycle.
A simple solution of equation (1) can be obtained if
the assumption is made that the damping coefficients in
local coordinate system, i.e., the longitudinal (fiber dir-
ection) coefficient denoted by 1 , the transverse coeffi-
cient denoted by 2 and the in-plane shear coefficient
denoted by 12 , are independent of the stress
State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures,
Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China
Corresponding author:
Chuwei Zhou, State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of
Mechanical Structures, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and
Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China.
Email: zcw@nuaa.edu.cn
2 Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 0(0)

effect of undulate fiber bundles on the damping proper-

ties is not considered by Guan and Gibson.10 However,
the undulate fiber bundles effect on damping capacities
of a woven composite illustrated in Figure 1 should be
taken into account, because the warp tows have larger
inclined angle which cannot be neglected. In addition,
Guan and Gibson10 pointed out that the predictions of
the composite loss factors can be improved by using a
reduced experimental fiber loss factor. It is notable that
Figure 1. Weave architecture of a typical woven composite. the reasonable use of fiber damping in formulations is
important for the predictions of composites
damping.10,16
ð1 , 2 , 12 Þ. Ni and Adams11 made an improvement on In this paper, the complex stiffness method is estab-
the damping prediction given by Adams and Bacon3 lished to describe the damping properties of woven
and Adams et al.4 They take the normal stress x , the composites. The effects of micro weave parameters
normal strain "x and the shear strain "xy in the global and damping properties of fiber phase in tows are con-
coordinate system into account during the determin- sidered. Experiments are carried out to validate the
ation of the dissipated energy. Based on the elastic-vis- proposed model, and finally conclusions are drawn
coelastic correspondence principle, Yim12 developed a based on the results reported herein.
complex stiffness model for more reliable damping pre-
diction of laminated composite beams. The basic damp-
ing of Poisson’s ratio derived by the indirect method
Theory
was proposed.
The methods mentioned above are all based on the Complex stiffness analysis
assumption that the damping coefficients in local
coordinate system are independent of stress. The From the classic thin laminated plate theory, the rela-
advantages of Adams theory and Ni and Adams tionship between the in-plane stress resultants Ni ,
theory are that the relation between global stress x moment resultants Mi , in-plane strains "j and curva-
(or Mx ) and local stress ð1 , 2 , 12 Þ of each lamina is tures j is given by17
easily derived under free-flexure condition, and the
damping of whole laminated composite beams can be     
Ni Aij Bij "j
obtained by summation of the damping of each lamina. ¼ ði, j ¼ 1, 2, 6Þ ð2Þ
Mi Bij Dij j
However, this relation is quite difficult to obtain for the
woven composites since they have complicated weaving      
structures in a repeated unit cell. It is seen that Yim’s where Aij , Bij and Dij are the extensional, stretch-
approach can calculate the complex stiffness matrix of ing-bending coupling and flexural stiffness matrices
whole structure directly and makes the damping predic- defined by
tion much simpler due to circumvention of the compli-
cated stress analysis. Z h=2
From literature review, it is seen that very few damp- 
Aij , Bij , Dij ¼ 1, z, z2 Q kij dz ð3Þ
ing prediction methods have been developed thus far h=2
for woven composites. Guan and Gibson10 developed a h i
closed-form model and a finite element model for where h is the thickness of the composite, Q kij can be
studying the viscoelastic damping in plain weave com- calculated by
posite. Both analytical models show good agreement
with the experimental data. The closed-form model
 1  T
was built by the formulations obtained from the mech- Q kij ¼ Tk Qij Tk ð4Þ
anics of materials and elastic-viscoelastic correspond-
ence principle and is actually a complex stiffness  
In equation (4), Tk is transformation matrix of the
method. The same approach can be also found to be
kth lamina defined by
used for predicting the damping of 3D braided textile
composites,13 damping of randomly oriented short- 2 3
fiber composites14 and damping of aligned discontinu- c2 s2 2cs
k 4
T ¼ c2 c2 2cs 5 ð5Þ
ous fiber composites.15 Since the inclined angle of fiber
bundles in plain weave composite is very small, the cs cs c2  s2
Yu and Zhou 3

where c ¼ cos k, s ¼ k k

 sin  ,  is the ply angle of the by Ishikawa and Chou and19, Chou and Ishikawa,20
kth lamina and Qij is given by Naik and Ganesh,21,22 and Scida et al.17,23 Among
them, the model given by Scida et al.,17,23 called
E1 MEchanical Simulation of TEXtile (MESOTEX), is
Q11 ¼
1  12 21 established based on the classic thin laminate theory
12 E2 and used to forecast the elastic properties of woven
Q12 ¼ composites with non-hybrid weave and hybrid weave
1  12 21 ð6Þ
E2 fabrics. MESOTEX is applied to different weaving
Q22 ¼ structures for woven composite and has good correl-
1  12 21
ation with experimental results17,23 In this paper, a sim-
Q66 ¼ G12
plified MESOTEX model is presented to calculate the
stiffness matrix of woven composite for obtaining the
According to the elastic-viscoelastic correspondence correct damping by using the complex stiffness method.
principle, the complex form of the basic engineering The stiffness prediction of woven composite requires
constants is described as a characteristic repeated unit cell, the definition of
woven architecture and properties of different constitu-
E1 ¼ E1 ð1 þ i1 Þ ents. The periodicity of woven composite enables us to
E2 ¼ E2 ð1 þ i2 Þ ð7Þ isolate a repeated unit cell as illustrated in Figure 2.
To simplify the calculation, the weft tows which
G12 ¼ G12 ð1 þ i12 Þ
slightly undulate are supposed to be straight, and
their cross sections are hexagon. Warp tows are simpli-
where 1 , 2 , and 12 represent longitudinal, transverse, fied as several horizontal and inclined cubes with same
and in-plane shear damping loss factor, respectively, rectangular sections. Hence, the parameters of the
and the loss factor  is related to specific damping cap- architecture of woven composite can be determined as
acity by the relation ¼ 2. illustrated in Figure 3. The length and width of
In the case of laminated composite beams with dif- repeated unit cell are Lt and Lp . The height of tows
ferent layers, the effective flexural modulus under free- can be derived by
flexure condition is given as18

hy ¼ H= Np þ Nt þ 2 ð11Þ
12
Elf ¼ 3 1 ð8Þ
h D11
where H is the thickness of woven composite, Np and
where D111 is the Fexural compliance along the beam Nt are the ply number of warp and weft tows. Here, it is
(longitudinal direction),
  derived as the element of the assumed that the heights of warp and weft tows are
inverse matrix of Dij . equal.
Hence, the complex bending modulus can be
obtained as

12
Elf ¼ ¼ E0lf þ iE00lf ð9Þ
h3 D1
11

11 represents the complex Fexural compliance

where D1
along the beam. E0lf and E00lf denote storage and loss
modulus of laminated composite beam. The flexural
loss factor of laminated composite is then calculated
as the ratio of the imaginary to real part value, namely

E00lf
lf ¼ ð10Þ
E0lf

Complex stiffness matrix of woven composite

Several analytical models are available to predict the
stiffness of woven composite, such as the models given Figure 2. Repeated unit cell of woven composite.
4 Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 0(0)

each constituent in global coordinate system (x, y, z) is

given as
2 3
EIx I
EIy
6 xy 0 7
6 d d 7
6 7
Q Iij ¼ 6
6 I xE I E I
y
7 where d ¼ 1  Ixy Iyx
7
6 yx d 0 7
4 d 5
0 0 GIxy
ð16Þ
For the resin

ER
x ¼ Er
ER
y ¼ Er
ð17Þ
Figure 3. The definition of the weaving parameters in repeated R
xy ¼ r
unit cell.
GR
xy ¼ Gr

The relations of weaving parameters are given as where Er , r and Gr are engineering elastic constant of
resin.
hy For the weft tows
p ¼ tan1 ð12Þ
2w
ETx ¼ E2
Wt  w  Af =ðVf hy Þ ¼ 0 ð13Þ ETy ¼ E1
ð18Þ
Wp  Af =ðVf hy Þ ¼ 0 ð14Þ Txy ¼ 21
GTxy ¼ G12
where Wp and Wt are the widths of cross section of
warp and weft tows, w is the width of triangle part in For the warp tows
the cross section of warp tow, p is the inclined angle of 
 
warp tow, Af is the cross-sectional area of fiber phase in P 1 4 1 13 2 2 1 4 1
Ex ¼ c þ 2 c s þ s
tows, and Vf is the fiber volume fraction in tows. The E1 p G13 E1 p p E2 p
widths of cross section of weft tows are larger than EPy ¼ E2
warp tows, since the straight weft tows are encountered  
12 2 23 2 ð19Þ
more compression by undulate warp tows. However, Pxy ¼ EPx cp þ sp
the cross section area of weft tows and warp tows E1 E2
" #1
should be equal in the fact that warp tows and weft s2p c2p
P
tows are made of same fiber bundles. Thus, equations Gxy ¼ þ
G23 G12
(13) and (14) are given to ensure this condition.
 
The technique proposed in Scida et al.23 is a point- where cp ¼ cos p and sp ¼ sin p .
wise lamination approach considering that the unit cell Since in a repeated unit cell shown in Figure 2, the
of woven composite is treated as a composite composed warp tows have three different local off-axis angles in x
of manyh slices
i with fiber tows and resin. The stiffness direction, i.e. 0o , p and p , hence the average stiffness
matrix Qsij of each slice is given as a summation of the matrix of warp tow is a volume average of the stiffness
stiffness matrices of resin, weft tow, and warp tow matrix of the warp tow with three different local off-
axis angles.
X
Qsij ðx, yÞ ¼ VI ðx, yÞQ Iij ðx, yÞ ði, j ¼ 1, 2, 6Þ ð15Þ The global stiffness matrix of the unit cell is calcu-
I lated by Qsij for each slice with an average in both x and
y direction.
where superscript ‘I’ denotes resin (R), weft tow (T) or
warp tow (P), Q Iij ðx, yÞ is the stiffness matrix of the ‘I’ Z Lt Z Lp
1
phase in slice in global coordinate system, and VI ðx, yÞ Qwc
ij ¼ Qsij ðx, yÞdx dy
Lt Lp 0 0
is the volume fraction of the ‘I’ phase in a repeated unit X ð20Þ
cell. If the thickness effect is not considered based on ¼ VI Q Iij ði, j ¼ 1, 2, 6Þ
the classic laminated plate theory, the stiffness matrix of I
Yu and Zhou 5

where Q Iij is the stiffness matrix of the ‘I’ phase and where r is the loss factor of resin, 3 , 13 and 23 are
VI is the volume fraction of the ‘I’ phase in a repeated the transverse loss factor, in-plane shear loss factor and
unit cell. transverse shear loss factor of unidirectional composite,
Then, the stiffness matrix of repeated unit cell is respectively. Since unidirectional composites are treated
given as as transverse isotropic material and G23 ¼
Z H=2 E2 =2ð1 þ 23 Þ, hence 3 ¼ 2 , 13 ¼ 12 and 23 ¼ 2 .
 Finally, the flexural loss factor wc
bending (damping) of
wc wc wc
Aij , Bij , Dij ¼ 1, z, z2 Qwc
ij dz ð21Þ
H=2 woven composite under free-flexure condition is
obtained by complex bending modulus in equation
Finally, the complex stiffness matrix of repeated unit (24) as the ratio of the imaginary to real part value
cell can be obtained by
Z H=2 wc
 E 00bending
wc wc wc
Aij , Bij , Dij ¼ 1, z, z2 Qwc
ij dz ð22Þ wc
bending ¼ wc ð26Þ
H=2 E 0bending

Damping of woven composite beams

Under free-flexure condition, the effective bending Experiment
modulus of woven composite similar to laminated com-
Materials and specimen
posite in equation (8) is given as
Epoxy resin (E51) and glass fiber/epoxy matrix com-
12 posite beams with different fiber orientations (0o , 45o ,
Ewc ¼ 3 1 wc ð23Þ
bending
H D11 and 90o ) were prepared to determine their basic static
elastic constants and damping properties. The shape of
where D111
wc
represents the Fexural compliance of the cross-section of beams is rectangular. Pure resin and
woven composite along the beam (longitudinal direc- unidirectional composites plates were first cured at
tion) and is obtained by the element of the inverse 25o C for 24 h under a pressure of 0.6 MPa on a mold
matrix of Dwc
ij derived in equation (21).
plate. Four groups of slender beam specimen, i.e., pure
Using elastic-viscoelastic correspondence principle, resin, 0o , 45o , and 90o unidirectional composite speci-
the effective complex bending modulus Ewc bending of
men, were cut from the rectangular plates. Each group
woven composite is has three specimens. The dimensions of the specimen
are 280  25  2 mm.
12 wc wc Woven composites which are constructed with glass
Ewc
bending ¼ ¼ E 0bending þ iE 00bending ð24Þ fiber tows and epoxy matrix were fabricated by using
h3 D1wc
11
hot molding press method. Two types of woven com-
where D1wc
11 represents the complex Fexural compli- posites were supplied by Nanjing Fiberglass Research
ance of woven composite along the beam and is derived & Design Institute. The major physical properties of the
as the element of inverse matrix of Dwc ij in equation two woven composites, namely, woven-a and woven-b,
wc
(22). E 0bending wc
and E 00bending denote the storage and loss are listed in Table 1. Figure 4 illustrates two cross sec-
bending modulus of woven composite. tions of a woven composite along different direction,
According to elastic-viscoelastic correspondence captured by optical microscope.
principle and assuming that all basic damping of
Poisson’s ratios are constants, the complex engineering Experimental procedures
constants of unidirectional composite used in Dwc ij are
defined as The impulse method is chosen to measure the damping
properties of the resin and composites due to the ease of
Er ¼ Er ð1 þ ir Þ implementation and the quickness of the experiment.
The experimental setup is shown in Figure 5.
E1 ¼ E1 ð1 þ i1 Þ
The specimen is supported horizontally in a clamp-
E2 ¼ E2 ð1 þ i2 Þ ing block. The excitation of the flexural vibration of the
E3 ¼ E3 ð1 þ i3 Þ ð25Þ beam is induced by an impulse hammer near the clamp-
G12 ¼ G12 ð1 þ i12 Þ ing block. Due to no added mass influence on the evalu-
ation of the damping, a laser sensor head (LK-G30) is
G13 ¼ G13 ð1 þ i13 Þ
used to detect the displacements response of the beam
G23 ¼ G23 ð1 þ i23 Þ near the free end. The response signals are processed by
6 Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 0(0)
Table 1. Major physical properties of the woven composites.
Composite Mass (g) Length (mm) Width (mm)
Woven-a 41.2 205 27.1
Woven-b 40.1 199 25.7
4
is the parameter determined by bound-
Figure 4. Cross sections of woven composite.
Figure 5. Schematic diagram of free vibrating experiment.
a sensor controller (LK-G3001) connected with a PC.
The system allows the simultaneous acquisition of two
signals with a maximum sampling frequency of 50 kHz
with a repeatability of 0.05 mm.
After initial excitation, the Fast Fourier Transform
(FFT) of time-domain signal gotten from the sensor
leads to the frequency response functions of the
beams. The peaks of the response correspond to the nat-
ural frequencies of the flexural vibration of the beams.
Based on the rational fraction polynomial (RFP)
method, the modal analysis is implemented via curve
Thickness (mm) Vf (%) Np Nt
4.44 54.3 6 7
5.20 65.9 8 9
Etting the frequency responses by using the toolbox
of Matlab to get the values of the natural frequencies
wi and the modal damping coeHcient i or the loss
factor i . The bending stiGness Ei for each natural fre-
quency of the beam in the case of low damping is
evaluated by24
42 A 2
Ei ¼ wi ð27Þ
I
where is the density of material, A is the cross-sec-
tional area of the beam, I is the moment of inertial of
the beam, and
ary condition, respectively.
Resins, unidirectional composites (0o , 45o , 90o ), and
woven composites beam specimens are used in free
vibrating experiment and each type of material has
three specimens, respectively. Since the thickness
shear effect may be a significant role for composite
damping especially in higher mode,25 the identification
of damping was carried out in the first flexural mode
with different specimen lengths to describe the evolu-
tion of the damping of each type of material at low
frequency range (0–250 Hz). The free lengths of resin
and unidirectional composites beam specimens are 200,
160, 120 and 80 mm, while the lengths of woven com-
posites beam specimens are 180, 160, 140 and 120 mm
for two types of woven composites, respectively.
Results and discussion
Material properties
The elastic properties of unidirectional composite can
be expressed by law of mixture, but a better evaluation
can be obtained according to Berthelot.26 Therefore,
the prediction method by Berthelot26 is used to predict
the elastic properties of the fiber tows treated as the
unidirectional composites. The elastic properties of
resin and fiber tows (fiber tows-a and fiber tows-b) in
two woven composites are given in Table 2. The geom-
etry parameters of the architecture of woven composite
are listed in Table 3. The length Lt and width Lp of
repeated unit cell and the widths of weft tows and warp
tows (Wt and Wp ) are directly measured by using opti-
cal microscope. hy , p , and w are derived from equa-
tions (11) to (14), respectively.
Yu and Zhou 7

Table 2. Elastic properties of resin, glass fiber and fiber tows. Table 4. Bending modulus of composites.

E1 E2 G12 G23 Bending modulus(GPa) 0o 45o 90o Woven-a Woven-b

Material (GPa) (GPa) 12 (GPa) (GPa) Vf
Experimental data 27.95 7.34 6.75 16.48 13.17
Matrix E51 3.5 – 0.3 1.35 – – Analytical results 27.83 7.24 6.52 16.36 12.77
Glass fiber 73 – 0.2 30.42 – –
Fiber tows-a 49.3 12.75 0.234 5.44 5.174 0.659
Fiber tows-b 41.3 9.59 0.246 4.01 3.858 0.543

Resin
2.0 0
o

o
45
Table 3. The parameters of the architecture geometry of 90
o

woven composites. 1.5

Loss factor (%)

Lt Lp hy Wt Wp w 
1.0
Composites (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (deg)

Woven-a 4.900 1.125 0.262 1.262 1.000 0.256 27.100

0.5
Woven-b 4.440 1.125 0.276 1.160 1.000 0.160 40.780

0.0
0 50 100 150 200 250
Frequency (Hz)
30

o
Figure 7. Damping of resin and unidirectional composites as
25 0
o
function of the frequency.
45
o
Bending modulus (GPa)

90
20
Woven-a
Woven-b equation (8) and equation (23), are listed in Table 4.
15 Compared with the experimental results for a frequency
of 100 Hz, a good agreement is observed.
10

5 Damping of resin and unidirectional composites

0
0 50 100 150
Frequency (Hz)
Figure 6. Bending moduli of unidirectional composites and
woven composites as function of the frequency.
Bending stiffness
The experimental results of the bending stiffness of
resin, unidirectional composites (0o , 45o , and 90o ) and
woven composites beams with the variation of the fre-
quency are obtained by equation (27) and are shown in
Figure 6. The four experimental frequencies for the first
flexural mode of each material increase as the beam
lengths decrease. It is seen that the bending moduli of
all specimens increase very slightly (maximum about
3.2%) with the frequency within the frequency
domain under consideration. Similar trend of the bend-
ing stiffness of composites is also found by Berthelot
and Sefrani.24
The analytical bending moduli for unidirectional
composites and woven composites, calculated by
The influence of frequency. The experimental loss factors
200 250 of resin and unidirectional composites (0o , 45o , and
90o ) in the first flexural mode are obtained by fitting
the experimental responses of beam specimens with dif-
ferent lengths and are illustrated in Figure 7 as the
function of frequency. The four experimental frequen-
cies for the first flexural mode of each material increase
as the beam lengths decrease. It is observed that the loss
factors of resin and 0o unidirectional composite stay
almost unchanged, while the loss factors of the 45o
and 90o unidirectional composites increase with the
increase of frequency. The magnitude of the loss
factor of the resin is the largest, since the fiber phase
in unidirectional composites is a low damping material.
Damping of unidirectional composites. Since the dimensions
of the specimens can significantly affect the damping of
composites and the loss factors of unidirectional com-
posites and resin used in this paper were all measured
under free flexural condition by beam specimens, thus,
all loss factors here are not material properties, but
represent the flexural loss factors. Some analytical
models12,16,27 were developed to describe longitudinal
8 Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 0(0)

2.5
2.0 Fitting results in [20]
Fitting results in [20]
Experimental results in [20]
Experimental results in [20]
Fitting results in this paper
2.0 Fitting results in this paper
1.6 Experimental results in this paper
Experimental results in this paper
Loss factor (%)

Loss factor (%)

1.2 1.5

0.8 1.0

0.4
0.5

0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 0.0
Fiber volume fraction 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
Fiber volume fraction

Figure 8. Longitudinal damping of unidirectional composites as

function of the fiber volume fraction. Figure 9. Transverse damping of unidirectional composites as
function of the fiber volume fraction.

damping (1 ), transverse damping (2 ), and in-plane

shear damping (12 ). If the viscoelastic matrix is only transverse damping with the fiber volume fraction was
considered for the contributions to damping, the longi- not further measured. Yim12 developed a fitting model
tudinal damping (1 ) can be given as16 to describe the transverse damping by using curve
Etting with a parameter . Since the parameter  is
Er obtained only for Eber volume fraction of 0.65,
1 ¼ ð1  Vf Þr ð28Þ
E1 Berthelot and Sefrani16 performed a better analysis to
evaluate the transverse composite damping more rea-
However, it is shown12,16 that expression (28) under- sonably. Following formulas are provided to calculate
estimates the longitudinal damping considerably. the transverse composite damping
Berthelot and Sefrani16 pointed out that the effect of
2 ¼ r2 þ f2 ð30Þ
the low stiffness fiber–matrix interface does not affect
the longitudinal damping appreciably. Based on the where
experimental damping of unidirectional composites,  
the longitudinal damping can be calculated more accur- E2 9 E2 3 E2 Er
r2 ¼ r ð1Vf Þ3 þ ð1Vf Þ2 Vf þ ð 1V f ÞV2
f
ately than equation (28) by Er 4 Ef 2 E2f
ð31Þ
Ef Er
1 ¼ 1f Vf þ r ð1  Vf Þ ð29Þ  
E1 E1 E2 3 E2 3 E2 Ef
f2 ¼ 2f ðVf Þ3 þ ð1  Vf ÞV2f þ ð 1  V f Þ2
V f
Ef 2 Er 4 E2r
where 1f is the longitudinal damping of glass fiber in a
viscoelastic matrix. ð32Þ
Analytical predictions by equation (29) are com-
pared with the experimental results provided by in which 2f is the transverse damping of fiber in a
Adams et al.4 and the present investigations, they are viscoelastic matrix. Predictions by the analytical
shown in Figure 8. It is seen that good agreements are model are compared with the experimental results
observed, where 1f ¼ 0:0019.16 given in Berthelot and Sefrani16 and this investigation,
For transverse damping (2 ), Chandra et al.27 com- shown in Figure 9. It is seen that good agreements are
pared several analytical models based on elastic-viscoe- obtained with 2f ¼ 0:00083.
lastic correspondence principle. Experimental Few experimental results and analytical models on
investigations on damping properties of unidirectional variations of in-plane shear damping (12 ) with fiber
glass fiber-reinforced composite by Chandra et al.28 fraction volume were reported in the literature. The
were later carried out to measure six loss factors loss factor 12 given by Chandra et al.27 is higher
(three in normal and three in shear). The measured than the limited available experimental results.4 Here,
transverse damping agrees with theoretical results an indirect method is employed to derive in-plane shear
(Eshelby’s method) well in Chandra et al.27 for a damping by identification of the experimental responses
given fiber volume fraction. However, experimental of unidirectional composite (45o ) beams and the
Yu and Zhou 9

Table 5. Damping coefficients of resin and fiber tows.

2.0
Woven-a
Woven-b
Material r 1 2 12

Fiber tows-a 0.02 0.0023 0.0079 0.0078

Fiber tows-b 0.02 0.0026 0.0104 0.0099
Loss factor (%)

1.5

Table 6. Damping of woven composites.

Material Experimental results Analytical calculation

1.0 Woven-a 0.0155 0.0159

50 100 150 200
Frequency (Hz) Woven-b 0.0181 0.0185

Figure 10. Damping of woven composites as function of the flexural loss factors 45o used in equation (35) are
frequency. 0.0075 and 0.0097, respectively.
For comparisons, the experimental damping of
analytical expression of the flexural loss factor 45o of woven composites at 100 Hz is summarized in
them.24 The specific equation of 45o is shown as follow Table 6, it is seen that a good agreement is achieved.
 
1 2 12 v12
45o ¼ E45o þ þ  ð1 þ 2 Þ ð33Þ Conclusions
4E1 4E2 4G12 4E1
Based on elastic-viscoelastic correspondence principle,
where 11 and 22 are determined by equations (29) a complex stiffness method is established to predict the
and (30). E45o represents Young’s modulus in longitu- damping properties of woven composites. Comparisons
dinal direction for unidirectional composite (45o ) and is to experimental data reveal that the proposed method
given as works effectively. It is shown that the damping of two

 woven composites with frequency has similar trend and
1 1 1 12 1 the increase is about 1.95% for woven-a and 2.45% for
E45 ¼
o þ þ  ð34Þ
4E1 4E2 4G12 2E1 woven-b with the increase of the frequency. The bend-
ing stiffness of woven composites also increases slowly
Then, the in-plane shear damping is written as with the frequency and the tendency is similar to the

 one of laminated composites and resin matrix.
45o v12 1 2
12 ¼ 4G12 þ ð1 þ 2 Þ  þ ð35Þ Although the strain energy method is successfully
E45o 4E1 4E1 4E2 used in the damping analysis for laminated composites,
it is difficult to be extended to woven composites due to
Damping of woven composites. The experimental damping the existence of undulate warp tows. Hence, the advan-
of woven composites as function of the frequency is tage of the complex stiffness method is the convenience
illustrated in Figure 10. The four experimental frequen- of calculating the complex stiffness matrix so that the
cies for the first flexural mode of woven composite damping can be obtained directly. Although the
increase as the beam lengths decrease. It is seen that method ignores the damping of Poisson’s ratio to sim-
the damping of woven composites grows slowly with plify the calculation of complex stiffness matrix, it is
the increase of frequency (about 1.95% for woven-a demonstrated that this simplification affects very little
and 2.45% for woven-b). on the damping predictions of woven composites.
To validate the proposed complex stiffness model,
the calculated loss factors of resin and fiber tows in Declaration of conflicting interests
two woven composites at 100 Hz are listed in Table 5, The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
where damping coefficient of resin (r ) is the experimen- respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
tal result and damping coefficients of fiber tows are article.
obtained by equations (29) to (35). Since the fiber
volume fractions of fiber tows-a and fiber tows-b are Funding
65.9% and 54.3% (Table 1), 45o unidirectional beam The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial sup-
specimens for the fiber volume fractions approximately port for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
equal to 66% and 54% were tested, and the measured article: This paper is partially supported by Fund of Jiangsu
10
Innovation Program for Graduate Education (CXZZ13_
0149) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central
Universities, National Natural Science Foundation of China
(11272147,10772078), Aviation Science Foundation
(2013ZF52074), Fund of State Key Laboratory of
Mechanical Structural Mechanics and Control (0214G02),
and Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program
Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions
(PAPD).
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