Studies on Structural and Damping Properties of Ramie Fiber Cloth and Carbon Fiber Cloth Hybrid Laminate Composites

Ramie fiber cloth with excellent damping property and strong carbon fiber cloth were laid alternatively to prepare the epoxy resin matrix composites via VARAM (vacuum resin absorbable molding) process. Firstly, the mechanical properties were estimated, including the dynamic mechanical property, the static mechanical property and the impact crack toughness. Next, vibration characteristics were studied by the measurement of the resonance frequency and the damping factors. The results indicated that the contradiction between the damping properties and the mechanical properties could be balanced by the hybrid plies of the ramie fiber cloth and the carbon fiber cloth. Consequently, it was able to reach the purpose of controllable regulation of the damping properties and the mechanical properties and give full play to remarkable designing advantages of composites. Among them, the composite with RCRCR lay-up achieved loss factor as high as 0.0057, 2.2 times more than that of the pure carbon fiber cloth composite, and tensile strength as much as 381.6 MPa, 4.6 times more than that of the pure ramie fiber cloth composite. In the end, the structure of hybrid laminated composite was analyzed and the finite element analysis on damping properties were carried out in order to study the internal reason of influence of different plies on the mechanical and damping properties of the composite. Furthermore, the resonance frequencies and loss factors of the composites with other plies were predicted, and it could support some references for the design of the structural damping composites.