Constrained-layer damping

About: Constrained-layer damping is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 795 publications have been published within this topic receiving 15758 citations.

Acoustic Radiation and Dynamic Study of a Steel Beam Damped with Viscoelastic Material

Abstract: Steel structures subject to dynamic loads are prior to generate excessive vibration and noise. Viscoelastic treatment is an effective measure to mitigate the vibration and noise from thin-walled structures in a broad frequency range. H-shaped steel beams are widely used in civil engineering. So an experiment system is established and a series of impact hammer tests are conducted to assess the modal parameters, dynamic response and acoustic behaviour of an H-shaped steel beam coated with various viscoelastic treatments. Firstly, the spectra of the velocity response and acoustic radiation of the bare beam are analysed based on the tested data. Secondly, the resonance frequencies and modal loss factors of the beam with various viscoelastic treatments derived from the frequency response function are compared. Finally, the effect of the layout and thickness of viscoelastic patches on the mitigation of vibration and noise is discussed experimentally. It is shown that the modal loss factor of the first mode increases from 0.012 to 0.191 when the web is treated with 5 mm thick constrained layer damping (CLD). The viscoelastic patches on the web of the H-shaped beam are more effective to control the vibration and noise of the beam than the patches on the flanges. The viscoelastic treatment has distinct effect on the reduction of structural vibration and noise owing to the different dominant frequencies of vibration and noise as well as the frequency-dependent radiation efficiency. The normal velocity level of the H-shaped beam with an 8 mm thick web can be reduced by more than 10 dB and the sound pressure level around the beam about 8 dB when the web is partially covered with the constrained layer damping composed of 2.0 mm thick damping layer and 3.0 mm thick constraining layer.

Single-element modeling of multilayer constrained-layer damping treatments

Abstract: The use of multi-layer constrained layer damping treatments on plate-like structures provides broadband vibration damping over a wide temperature range. A difficulty with the design of such treatments is their modeling. The current state of the art requires a separate plate element for each constraining layer plus a solid element for each viscoelastic layer in the thickness direction. The number of degrees of freedom is large conflicting with the iterative approach necessitated by the frequency and temperature dependance of the material properties which dictates that a small model size must be maintained. The large model size also slows optimization. The goal of this research was to produce a true plate finite element model which uses only a few degrees of freedom per node. This model is obtained by using a variational asymptotical theory to correctly capture the layerwise jumps in the stress and strain fields. A model is developed for simply supported plates which can later be extended to a more general finite element. Results are compared with the exact elasticity solution of Pagano. They show an excellent match exists in the predicted stress and strain field. The model is also compared with RKU analysis for plates again demonstrating its accuracy. A future finite element model based on this theory would require only six extra degrees of freedom per node with only one element in the thickness direction, thus simplifying the modeling of constrained layer damping treatments.