Passive Stand-Off Layer Damping Treatment: Theory And Experiments

Abstract

One of the techniques used to enhance the damping characteristics of constrained damping treatments utilizes a spacer layer, called a "stand-off" layer, which is sandwiched between the viscoelastic layer and the base structure. This "stand-off" layer acts as a strain magnifier that magnifies the shear strain in the viscoelastic layer by virtue of increasing the distance between the viscoelastic layer and the neutral axis of the base structure. The "stand-off" layer must have high shear stiffness in order to achieve high damping characteristics. Slotted "stand-off" layers are used to achieve such high shear stiffness and low bending stiffness. In SSOL, the geometry of the slots play a very important role in determining the effectiveness of the damping treatment. It is therefore the purpose of this dissertation to model the dynamics and damping characteristics of Passive Stand-off damping treatments using distributed-parameter approach as well as the finite element method.