Fabrication and investigation on damping performance of novel co‐curing sandwich composites

Abstract A new kind of co‐cured sandwich composite was manufactured via inserting tailored damping materials between the lamina to enhance vibration characteristics and sound insulation performance of traditional sandwich composite. The sandwich material was investigated based on the theory of co‐curing, which was superior to the preparation process of traditional sandwich composite. The viscous flow characteristics of epoxy resin and rubber sandwich were considered in the preparation process. The damping characteristics and sound insulation properties of the sandwich composite were determined by the single cantilever beam vibration test and the standing wave tube method. The loss factor of the sandwich composites with damping layer thickness of 0.1 mm reaches 3.384%, which increases by 102.81% compared with that of the undamped composite. The experimental results reveal that the novel damping polymer enhances the damping characteristic and sound insulation performance of laminates significantly compared with previous sandwich composite. The conclusion indicates that the co‐cured composite structures show a strong ability of vibration reduction and sound insulation.