Damping Behavior of Thermoplastic Organic Sheets with Continuous Natural Fiber-Reinforcement

In the field of lightweight construction, the use of natural fibers as reinforcement in composites has been increasingly discussed. Additionally, the damping properties of natural fibers are known from fiber materials such as fiber insulation boards. In the scope of the work presented here, the focus is on identifying the potential of natural fibers for lightweight structures with high vibration damping capacity. For this purpose, test specimens made of flax fiber-reinforced and glass fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites were manufactured and characterized. Contrary to expectations, the flax fiber-reinforced composite exhibited an almost isotropic damping characteristic. A comparison of the damping and stiffness properties determined by measurement confirms the high potential of natural fiber-reinforced materials for lightweight structures with high damping.