Numerical and Experimental Characterization of the Dynamic Properties of Flax Fiber Reinforced Composites

In this paper, the damping properties of flax fiber reinforced composites were investigated. Throughout a series of resonance vibration tests, the natural frequencies and the modal damping were evaluated. A numerical modelling was also produced by using a finite element model to determine the energies dissipated in each layer of the laminate structure in order to calculate the damping factors. The results obtained for the dynamic properties of flax fiber reinforced composites from experimental data and numerical analysis method show close agreement. The effect of fiber orientations on the damping behavior for this material was investigated. Another part of our work was to insert a thin viscoelastic layer within the flax fiber laminate. The interposition of this viscoelastic layer had a significant influence on the vibration behavior, bending stiffness and damping factors.