Author : Siddharth D. Owal and S. B. Sanap

Damping is a critical parameter that needs to be studied for different materials. Hence the best suitable material can be used for a particular application. In metal structure damping is low, which results in high amplitude of vibration. Hence instead of metals, viscoelastic materials can be used as a damping material. These materials are capable of storing energy when deformed and dissipate a portion of energy through hysteresis. The damping performance of the viscoelastic materials are investigated using constrained layer damping treatment. An experimental investigation is carried out to determine damping factor using different viscoelastic materials as the core layer in the constrained layer damping structures using Fast Fourier Transform analyser. The amount of damping of structure is measured by logarithmic decrement method. This method of damping treatment is widely used for structural application in many industries like automobiles, aerospace etc.

Keywords: Viscoelastic material (VEM), constrained layer damping (CLD), Logarithmic decrement, Damping factor.