Effect of polycaprolactone nanofibers on the vibratory behaviour and the damage resistance of composite laminates

¹ University of Strathclyde, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, 75 Montrose Street, G1 1XJ, Glasgow, UK
² University of Bologna, Department of Industrial Engineering, Viale Risorgimento 2, 40125, Bologna, Italy

^* Corresponding author: cristobal.garcia@strath.ac.uk

Abstract

Aircrafts, bridges, wind turbines and other civil structures made of composite materials are frequently subjected to vibrations, which are responsible for a considerable number of accidents. One of the methods to reduce the vibrations is the incorporation of nanofibers in the composite structures. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the inclusion of polycaprolactone nanofibers on the vibratory behaviour of composite laminates. For this purpose, the vibratory behaviour of nano composites (with nanofibers) and standard composites (without nanofibers) is investigated with the purpose of acquiring their natural frequencies and the damping ratio. The results indicated that the inclusion of polycaprolactone nanofibers in composites increased the damping ratio, however it did not change significantly the natural frequencies. Furthermore, the paper investigates the effect of polycaprolactone nanofibers on the damage resistance of glass fibre composites. For this purpose, a finite element model is used to simulate the damage caused by mechanical impact in standard and nano composites. The numerical simulations show that the interleaving with nanofibers increased the damage resistance considerably. This study contributes to the knowledge about the vibration behaviour and the damage resistance of composites interleaved with polycaprolactone nanofibers. It is demonstrated that the interleaving with polycaprolactone fibres can play an important role for reducing the vibrations and increasing their impact damage resistance in composite structures as aircrafts.