ANALYTICAL, EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL APPROACH OF STORAGE AND LOSS MODULI OF FIBRE REINFORCED EPDXY COMPOSITES

In the numerical study presented in this article, the dynamic response of micro-mechanically modelled unidirectional fibre reinforced composites was investigated. The aim was to use numerical analysis for providing with an insight to the material properties that would be used for initial assessment of the dynamic response of composite materials. Assumption to the investigation was the known dynamic response of the matrix material in terms of its tangent and loss moduli, which were evaluated through dynamic mechanical analysis testing and therefore treated as an input to our numerically simulated problem. Consequently, composite fibre materials made of glass fibre and epoxy matrix modelled with finite elements and tested in dynamic numerical solution sequences. The results of the analyses were the prediction of the tangent and loss moduli of the composite material. The results were correlated with analytical and experimental studies. The modal behavior of the material was numerically investigated as well in an effort to describe the structural damping properties in terms of fibre volume content.