Effect of cenosphere filler on damping properties of bamboo-epoxy laminated composites

This paper deals with evaluation of damping properties of natural fibre composites consisting of bamboo fibre as reinforcement, epoxy as matrix and cenosphere as particulate filler. Hand lay-up technique is used to fabricate the composites with varying number of layers and different weight percentage of cenosphere filler. The prepared specimens are subjected to free vibration test (FVT) to investigate the damping ratio and natural frequency. Damping of the bamboo-epoxy composites is analysed experimentally using cantilever beam test set up by impulse technique. The investigation reveals that the number of layers and cenosphere filler content influences the natural frequency and the damping ratio.