An operator based novel micromechanical model of viscoelastic hybrid woven fibre-particulate reinforced polymer composites

A detailed study is conducted to investigate the effect of silicon carbide (SiC) particles on the mechanical behaviour of viscoelastic woven glass/epoxy composite. A novel operator based micromechanical modelling in conjunction with finite element formulation of hybrid composite is derived considering the modulus operator for fibre, matrix as well as filler particles. A time-domain higher-order equation of motion is then developed to obtain frequency response and modal damping parameters. These dynamic parameters are verified with free vibration experiments conducted using an impact hammer and an accelerometer connected to a device loaded with B&K PULSE software. The predicted results are found to be in good convergence with the experiments. Further, it is also observed that damping ratio increases while natural frequency decreases with increase in SiC content. Moreover, the proposed micromechanical model can efficiently estimate the dynamic characteristics of hybrid woven composites without even fabricating samples and conducting explicit experiments, thus saving time and cost.