Impact of Graphene Reinforcement Upon Damping Properties of Epoxy/Glass Hybrid Composites

Abstract

The primary goal of this study was to examine how epoxy/glass fiber/graphene hybrid composites' inherent frequencies and mode shapes are affected by graphene reinforcement. Hybrid composite laminates were made using the hand layup method after graphene dispersions of 3, 4, and 5 weight percent were introduced into the epoxy resin using ultra-sonication. The experimental and numerical methods of determining the damping properties of the developed hybrid composite laminates were carried out utilizing a Model test rig and the ANSYS workbench, respectively. The addition of graphene to the hybrid composites enhanced their global stiffness, which in turn raised the natural frequencies of the first three modes by 8.05, 6.64, and 1.09%, respectively. The hybrid composites' reduced surface area for energy dissipation due to the graphene reinforcement resulted in a reduction of 35.29%, 56.63%, and 49.53% in the damping ratio of the first three modes, respectively. According to the results of the numerical validation, the first mode has a larger variance than the other two modes.