Damping characteristics of laminated cantilever under consideration of position of neutral plane

This paper deals with damping characteristics of a laminated cantilever. In order to determine the loss factor of a three-layered cantilever with arbitrary thickness, an analytical method of evaluating the position of the neutral plane is presented when it exists in the middle layer. Using both this method presented here and Ross' method applicable to the case wherein the neutral plane exists in the first layer, it was found that the position of the neutral plane can be obtained accurately. In addition, it is shown that its position leads to the determination of the loss factor of the three-layered cantilever. From experiments, it was ascertained that these theoretical values of the loss factor agreed well with the experimental values. Moreover, it was clarified which cantilever has better damping characteristics between three-layered and two-layered cantilevers.