HyCEML – Hybrid CFRP Elastomer Metal Laminates Containing Elastomeric Interfaces for Deliberate Dissipation

With lightweight design being one of the key challenges in the automotive sector, lightweight materials see a steadily increasing usage. Their undesired vibrational behavior under oscillatory loading, however, can pose a conflict when noise, vibration and harshness are to be mitigated in technical applications. Therefore, the dissipation of vibrational energy in lightweight structures by means of an intrinsic damping mechanism is favorable. By combining traditional lightweight materials such as fiber metal laminates, with materials that offer high material damping, hybrid CFRP elastomer metal laminates can be designed to provide an optimized dynamic behavior of lightweight components. This work proposes experimental methods and modeling approaches to efficiently and accurately analyze the behavior of hybrid laminates following the principle of constrained layer damping. Furthermore, it analyzes the robustness of this damping mechanism with regard to damage inflicted to such laminates under impact loading conditions.