Damping measurements on a carbon fibre reinforced laminate

By performing force-displacement tests in a universal testing machine it is possible to accurately measure the damping of a material. By providing accurate estimates of the damping for a set of given conditions, it should be possible to determine which model is more adequate to describe damping: viscous, hysteretic or a combination of both. On the other hand, by changing the amplitude it should be possible to assess the linearity of the material behaviour. In this work, the authors present the experimental results of the damping measurements on a specimen of a quasi-isotropic Carbon Fibre Reinforced Laminate, for different testing parameters, like frequency and amplitude. The setup is fully described and results are presented in detail, giving a special attention to the experimental problems, so that this work can become a useful contribution to further studies.