The objective of the "Lightweight Composites With Integrated Damping", Phase II SBIR proposal is to develop technologies and procedures that merge damping materials with a patent pending wavy composite system, and create lightweight aerospace structures that meet or exceed the current capabilities of conventional composite materials for strength, stiffness, and damping. Traditional passive noise and vibration control methods for these structures are heavy, bulky, and perform only marginally. Highly damped wavy composite components and structures will be constructed, tested and analyzed. Optimized components will be built using the result of experimentation and integrated with a larger structure. This effor will develop the software analysis tools and methods necessary to analyze this new material system. Unprecedented improvements in structural dynamics are expected from this Phase II project. This will lead to the design and manufacture of new highly damped space launch vehicle components that exhibit high stiffness, strength, and damping that can be tailored by the engineer. This research program combines the expertise of aerospace, materials, and engineering firms and a university to deliver new methodologies and material systems for the manufacture of improved aerospace vehicles and components.
Benefits: This project will demonstrate the ability of co-cured wavy patterned fiber composites to provide high structural damping without sacrificing stiffness and strength. There are many applications areas that can benefit from this technology including aerospace, automotive, sports, commercial, and civil engineering. In general, any application which uses fiber reinforced plastics (composites), that would benefit from tailorable damping while retaining the lightweight, stiffnes, and strength of composites, is a candidate for this new technology.
