PASSIVE DAMPING OF SMA HYBRID COMPOSITE LAMINA

SMA hybrid composite materials consisting of SMA fibers, conventional fibers and matrix are important smart materials and structures that have found wide applications. Damping characteristics of such hybrid composite material are of great concern for passive vibration control. This paper employs micromechanic damping theory for hybrid fiber composite materials to evaluate the damping capacity of SMA hybrid fiber composite lamina. The equations for the computation of damping are used in two phases. First, these equations are used for a composite medium consisting of conventional fibers and the matrix. At the second phase, these equations are formulated for a composite medium treated as an orthotropic matrix with SMA fibers embedded within the medium. The application case for NiTi/glass/epoxy lamina is considered. The effects of SMA fiber volume, angle of ply orientation on on-axis and off-axis damping characteristics of SMA hybrid composite lamina are investigated.