Title: Damping properties of pre-stressed shape-memory polymer sandwich beam

Authors: Tomohisa Kojima; Daigo Sato; Mitsuo Notomi

Addresses: Department of Precision Mechanics, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Chuo University, 1-13-27, Kasuga, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 112-8551, Japan ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Science and Technology, Meiji University, 1-1-1, Higashimita, Tama-ku, Kawasaki-shi, 214-8571, Kanagawa, Japan ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Science and Technology, Meiji University, 1-1-1, Higashimita, Tama-ku, Kawasaki-shi, 214-8571, Kanagawa, Japan

Abstract: Recently, the development of damping materials has attracted attention to the field of vibration suppression. In this study, a pre-stressed composite sandwich beam was made using aluminium plates and polyurethane-based shape-memory polymer (SMP) with high damping capacity at temperatures near the glass transition point as the core material. Then, viscoelasticity measurements were carried out. It was found that, by sandwiching the SMP with aluminium plates, it may be possible to guarantee a higher stiffness than the vibration isolating rubber in the whole temperature range by a factor of at least 100. Furthermore, the sandwich composite specimen may achieve a value equivalent to or better than the loss factor of the vibration isolating rubbers at a temperature near the glass transition point of the SMP. It was also implied that the loss factor of the sandwich composite beam could be improved by pre-applying tensile stresses to the SMP.

Keywords: functional materials; shape-memory polymer; SMP; composite structure; sandwich beam; damping; viscoelasticity; loss factor.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMPT.2022.120236

International Journal of Materials and Product Technology, 2022 Vol.64 No.1, pp.78 - 92

Received: 23 Apr 2020
Accepted: 09 Jul 2021
Published online: 11 Jan 2022 *

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