Tailoring the vibration damping behaviour of flax fibre-reinforced epoxy composite laminates via polyol additions

In the present work, the addition of glycerol and polyglycerol was found to increase the damping coefficient of flax composites by 10-13% and 21-25%, respectively, according to dynamic mechanical thermal analysis and acoustic testing. The damping coefficients of the polyol-treated flax composites were larger than those of the non-treated flax and the aramid- or carbon-fibre composites prepared under similar conditions. The relatively high damping behaviour of polyol-treated flax fibre reinforced composite is attributed to a stick-slip mechanism that involves the cyclic breaking and reformation of hydrogen bonds between the polyols and lamellae of the cell walls or microfibrils within the lamellae. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.