Characterization of Mechanical and Damping Properties of Nettle and Glass Fiber Reinforced Hybrid Composites

Growing environmental concerns are becoming significant challenges for large-scale applications in the automotive industry. Replacing and hybridizing glass fibers with natural non-structural is one effective way to address this challenge, while retaining useful properties of both. This paper investigates mechanical damping performance four types compression-molded materials: polyester matrix (reference), nettle (6% by weight), hybrid 1 6% 2 (12% at an ambient temperature. The tensile tests using digital image correlation (DIC) showed that adding weight polymer modulus increases 21%. For two-layer composite nettle) three-layer nettle), it 80% 101%, respectively. On other hand, dynamic analysis (DMA) has been used assess materials. results loss factor increased 6~14% reinforced composite, 8~25% glass-nettle 2~15% frequencies around 1.0~2.0 Hz 12 corresponding vehicle body suspension frequencies, These can be replaced without compromising performance.