Material damping analysis of smart hybrid composite laminated plate structures

Material damping analysis of a generally laminated smart hybrid composite plate has been presented in this paper. The present analytical formulation is an integrated micro-macro-mechanical method. Analytical equations derived at the lamina level together with a classical laminated thin plate theory predict the equivalent material specific damping capacity (SDC) of a general smart hybrid composite laminated plate structure. The micro-mechanical equations based on the mechanics of material have been used for the calculation of the elastic stiffness and SDC of an intraply hybrid composite lamina. Present objective is mainly to get a first hand information on the basic material damping behavior of hybrid composite laminate. Therefore, numerical studies have been carried out for a typical shape memory alloy (SMA) smart composite laminated plate model. The effects of the laminate fiber orientation and the SMA volume fraction on the SDC and natural frequencies of the laminate were evaluated.