The aim of this work was the development of sandwich structures formed by embedding magnetorheological elastomers (MRE) between constrained layers of carbon fibre–reinforced plastic (CFRP) laminates. The MREs were obtained by mechanical stirring of a reactive mixture of substrates with carbonyl-iron particles, followed by orienting the particles into chains under an external magnetic field. Samples with particle volume fractions of 11.5% and 33% were examined. The CFRP/MRE sandwich structures were obtained by compressing MREs samples between two CFRP laminates composed. The used A.S.SET resin was in powder form and the curing process was carried out during pressing with MRE. The microstructure of the manufactured sandwich beams was inspected using SEM. Moreover, the rheological and damping properties of the examined materials with and without a magnetic field were experimentally investigated. In addition, the free vibration responses of the adaptive three-layered MR beams were studied at different fixed magnetic field levels. The free vibration tests revealed that an applied non-homogeneous magnetic field causes a shift in natural frequency values and a reduction in the vibration amplitudes of the CFRP/MRE adaptive beams. The reduction in vibration amplitude was attributed mainly to the stiffening effect of the MRE core and only a minor contribution was made by the enhanced damping capacity, which was evidenced by the variation in damping ratio values.

Integration of functional elements into fibre-reinforced host structures provides the possibility for in situ monitoring of the structural integrity of critical components. In this study, a vibration-based monitoring function has been developed that allows the structural integrity identification of critical components. For this purpose, signal analysis algorithms were developed to enable the estimation of damage-dependent modal damping. The analysed smart structure was a carbon fibre–reinforced epoxy composite plate with an integrated actuating/sensing system. The local material damping is a parameter especially sensitive to different failure modes of composites. In order to characterise the changes of this parameter resulting from impact events, dynamical mechanical analysis on intact and damaged specimens made of the composite material was conducted. Based on the dynamical mechanical analysis results, a finite element model of the structure was developed. Then, modal damping ratios for different sizes and locations of damaged regions were numerically determined, and a relation between modal damping and damage-dependent local damping was identified. The deterministic decision trees describing the reverse relationship between online-measured modal damping and damage condition were determined. That was accomplished through the application of information entropy-based data-mining algorithms to the numerically generated learning dataset obtained using the developed finite element model.

The paper presents preliminary numerical and experimental studies of active textile-reinforced thermoplastic composites with embedded sensor-actuator arrays. The goal of the investigations was the assessment of directional sound wave generation capability using embedded sensor-actuator arrays and developed a wave excitation procedure for ultrasound measurement tasks. The feasibility of the proposed approach was initially confirmed in numerical investigations assuming idealized mechanical and geometrical conditions. The findings were validated in real-life conditions on specimens of elementary geometry. Herein, the technological aspects of unique automated assembly of thermoplastic films containing adapted thermoplastic-compatible piezoceramic modules and conducting paths were described.

The investigated hybrid carbon fiber reinforced plastics-elastomer-metal laminates (HyCEML) offer the potential of tailored structural materials with adaptable damping properties. Conventional fiber metal laminates, like glass laminate aluminum reinforced epoxy are already widely spread in the aviation industry owing to their outstanding fatigue behavior. By integrating an elastomeric interlayer, the glass fibers can be substituted by carbon fibers and damping properties of these laminates can be adjusted. The viscoelastic interlayer dissipates energy within the laminate by inducing shear strain during bending, which is commonly known as constrained layer damping. The aim of this paper is the description of the vibration and damping behavior of HyCEML over a wide temperature and frequency range by using different test methods. Dynamic mechanical analysis is used for the individual polymeric constituents and coupon specimens and modal analysis is used with different specimen geometries up to a component sized panel. In addition, analytical and numerical approaches complement the experiments and lead to a deeper understanding of the vibration and damping behavior. Owing to the high damping, already at frequencies of 5 kHz only running waves can be detected for the investigated panel size. The discussion of different test methods helps to identify material and wavelength dependent effects, but also possible adverse effects of certain methods.