On the Region for the Application of Passive Damping Treatment and Loss Factor Enhancement

Abstract

The loss factor of a structure is significantly improved by using constrained damping treatment. For a mass efficient design, the damping material is to be applied at suitable locations. The studies reported in literature use the modal strain energy distribution in the viscoelastic material or the strain energy distribution in the base structure as tools to arrive at these suitable locations for the damping treatment. It is shown here that the regions identified through the above criteria need not be suitable for certain bending modes of vibration. A new approach is proposed in which the strain in the viscoelastic material and the angle of flexure are shown to be more reliable in arriving at the locations for the damping treatment. Providing damping layers at identified locations using these parameters results in significant loss factors with minimal added mass.