Damping and layer configuration in wood veneer composites

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to find and describe the relationship between damping properties and both the number of layers and the fiber orientation in wood-veneer-composite specimens. The testing apparatus was a simple torsional pendulum in which the frequencies of the resulting free vibrations were maintained between 13 and 23 Hz. Cross-sectional (30 × 30 mm) specimens with a total length of 250 mm were used. The specimens were cut from manufactured wood-veneer-composite panels (both 0°/90° and 0°/0° oriented) with up to 13 layers. Existing problems such as nonlinearities, which are often responsible for weighting results, were taken into account by using several mathematical approaches. The results led to a consistent picture of the damping properties across the measured range. We found that the damping ratio increased for the 0°/90° orientation with increasing numbers of layers in a cross-sectional specimen of constant outer dimensions. This effect could not be reproduced for specimens oriented 0°/0°.