Improving friction vibration and noise characteristics of carbon fiber-reinforced resin composites by utilizing Polyurethane's enhanced damping capacity

Carbon fiber-reinforced resin composites (CFRCs) are widely used in aerospace, automotive manufacturing, and braking systems. However, the brittleness of the resin matrix makes CFRCs prone to generating intense vibration and noise under dry friction conditions. This study introduces thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) elastomer as a matrix modification component for CFRCs. These results indicate that blending TPU with phenol–formaldehyde (PF) resin increases energy dissipation through increased intermolecular friction and hydrogen bonding. The average loss factor of the TPU-modified CFRCs increased by up to 70.6 %. TPU-modified CFRCs achieved maximum increases of 23.5 % and 43.4 % in shear strength and impact strength, respectively. TPU facilitates the formation of a continuous friction film, improving friction stability and mitigating fatigue wear. Compared with unmodified CFRCs, moderately TPU-modified CFRCs (1.71 × 10⁻⁸ cm³/J) presented a 19.0 % lower wear rate. Compared with unmodified CFRCs, moderately TPU-modified CFRCs reduced friction-induced vibration levels by 75.6 % and noise levels by 7.04 dB(A). High-frequency noise control is governed primarily by damping performance, whereas low-frequency noise is influenced by friction surface characteristics. This study not only presents a pathway for preparing high-performance CFRCs but also provides a theoretical basis for understanding the vibration noise behaviour of CFRCs during friction.