Effect of imperfect interfaces on elastothermodynamic damping of particulate metal-matrix composites

Most of the works related to the evaluation of elastothermodynamic damping in particle-reinforced metal-matrix composite assume perfect interfaces bet ween reinforcement and matrix. On the contrary, composite materials do have imperfect interfaces because of debonding between the reinforcement and ma trix. With passage of time, debonding becomes more extensive. In the presen t work, imperfect mechanical and thermal interface has been considered for the calculation of energy dissipation in the composite sphere model subject ed to the uniform time-harmonic excitation. Two non-dimensional parameters quantifying the mechanical and thermal imperfectness at the interfaces have been identified. It is observed that specific damping capacity increases d ue to mechanical imperfection whereas it decreases due to thermal imperfect ion and hence the two types of imperfection have compensatory effects on th e specific damping capacity.