Vibration and damping analysis of multilayered rectangular plates with constrained viscoelastic layers

Governing equations of motion for vibrations of a general multilayered plate consisting of an arbitrary number of alternate stiff and soft layers of orthotropic materials are derived by using variational principles. Extension, bending and in-plane shear deformations in stiff layers and only transverse shear deformations in soft layers are considered as in conventional sandwich structural analysis. In addition to transverse inertia, longitudinal translatory and rotary inertias are included, as such analysis gives higher order modes of vibration and leads to accurate results for relatively thick plates. Vibration and damping analysis of rectangular simply supported plates consisting of alternate elastic and viscoelastic layers is carried out by taking a series solution and applying the correspondence principle of linear viscoelasticity. The damping effectiveness, in term of the system loss factor, for all families of modes for three-, five- and seven-layered plates is evaluated and its variations with geometrical and material property parameters are investigated.     

An analysis of interlaminar stresses in active constrained layer damping treatments

This paper presents an analysis of the interlaminar stresses in active constrained layer (ACL) damping treatments. The primary objective of this study is to provide in-depth understanding of the delamination of ACL damping treatment and, to establish guidelines to lower the risk of delamination without sacrificing performance. Two major issues are addressed in this investigation. First, the effects of feedback control schemes on interlaminar stresses are analyzed. The proportional (P) and the derivative (D) control laws are selected for comparison. It is found that for the system under consideration, for similar vibration reduction, the derivative control scheme introduces lower interlaminar stresses than proportional control. Also, the derivative control scheme has lower voltage requirements. Second, the ACL treatment is compared with the purely active configuration (without the viscoelastic layer). In addition to the damping performance and control effort requirement (which have been analyzed and compared by researchers in the past), the interlaminar stresses are now included in the comparison. It is shown that the ACL configuration could have significantly lower interlaminar stresses than the purely active configuration, for similar levels of vibration reduction. Hence, in applications where system durability is a concern, the ACL treatment should be preferred over purely active configuration because it has lower interlaminar stress as-well-as lower axial stresses in the piezoelectric cover sheet.     

Complex power distribution analysis in plates covered with passive constrained layer damping patches

The vibration of a plate partially covered with a passive constrained layer damping (PCLD) patch is studied from an energetic point of view. The damped plate is excited by an acoustic plane wave. The study is done with a numerical two-dimensional multilayer plate model. Results of the present model are compared to those obtained with three-dimensional finite element models. It is shown that the present model gives accurate results, even for the layer's inner behavior. It is less expansive in terms of computational cost; hence, it can simulate efficiently the structure for higher frequencies. Mathematical formulas for complex mechanical power are presented, and the link with strain and kinetic energies and dissipated power is detailed. Both local and global complex power balance are established, and corresponding expressions for the discretized problem are formulated. Conservative and dissipative powers are studied for the PCLD damped plate. After a global balance analysis versus frequency, a local study has been carried out in order to quantify the relative contribution of the components of strain and stress tensors to the total strain energy and dissipated power; the individual layer's contributions is also investigated. The in-plane distributions of powers are mapped, showing the location where dissipative phenomenon occurs and where strain energy is stored. Finally, three criteria based on the previous power quantities are proposed in order to quantify the mechanical damping efficiency of the patch.     

Optimum thickness distribution of unconstrained viscoelastic damping layer treatments for plates

This paper concerns the optimum thickness distribution of unconstrained viscoelastic damping layer treatments for plates. The system loss factor is expressed in terms of the mechanical properties of the plate and damping layer and the layer/plate thickness ratio. Optimum distributions of the thickness ratio that maximize the system loss factor are obtained through sequential unconstrained minimization techniques. Results are presented for both simply-supported and edge-fixed rectangular plates with aspect ratios of 1·0 to 4·0. These results indicate that the system loss factor can be increased by as much as 100%, or more, by optimizing the thickness distribution of the damping treatment. Also revealed are the regions of the plate where added damping treatments are most effective.     

Vibration of edge reinforced annular plates

The free transverse vibration of annular plates reinforced by circular rings along the simply supported outer and free inner boundaries is analyzed. A closed form solution is obtained by applying the appropriate forces, moments and motions of the circular edge-beams as boundary conditions on the differential equation for the free transverse vibration of plates. A study of the resulting natural frequencies compared with previous results for unreinforced edges indicates that edge-beams with even a relatively small stiffness have a significant effect upon the natural frequencies of the system.     

Vibration analysis of composite annular plates by an integral equation technique

In layered plates, coupling between bending and stretching makes the analysis complicated. A numerical method, namely an integral equation technique which has been used for solving static and dynamic problems, is extended to vibration analysis of layered annular plates which are fixed at the inner and outer radii. The results obtained are compared with those of other investigators and a parametric study is made of the effect of layer thickness, the layers being made up of two different materials.     

Vibration analysis of functionally graded annular plates with mixed boundary conditions in thermal environment

The free vibration analysis of functionally graded annular plates with mixed boundary conditions in thermal environment is carried out by the 3D elasticity theory and the Chebyshev–Ritz method. The material properties are assumed to be temperature dependent and graded in the thickness direction. The mixed boundary conditions which include upper and lower surfaces partially fixed, inner side partially fixed and outer side partially fixed are considered, respectively. The accuracy of the present approach for solving the free vibration of the plates with different boundary conditions is validated by comparing the present numerical results with the results available. The effects of the different mixed boundary conditions, the temperature rise, the material graded index and the geometrical parameters on the eigen-frequencies are studied.     

Vibration of a circular disk as a test method for damping characteristics of constrained layer material

The theoretical analysis of free vibrations of a disk of constrained layer sandwich material is considered. The results enable the real and imaginary parts of the shear parameter to be determined from experimental data. A correction for a small mass attached to the centre of a disk is introduced. An example of test results illustrates the method. An exact method involving numerical solution of the governing differential equation has been checked by approximate formulae based on potential energy of deformation.     

Dynamic stability of a rotating beam with a constrained damping layer

The dynamic behavior and dynamic instability of the rotating sandwich beam with a constrained damping layer subjected to axial periodic loads are studied by the finite element method. The influences of rotating speed, thickness ratio, setting angle and hub radius ratio on the resonant frequencies and modal system loss factors are presented. The regions of instability for simple and combination resonant frequencies are determined from the Mathieu equation that is obtained from the parametric excitation of the rotating sandwich beam. The regions of dynamic instability for various parameters are presented.     

An enhanced beam model for constrained layer damping and a parameter study of damping contribution

An enhanced analytical model is presented based on an extension of previous models for constrained layer damping (CLD) in beam-like structures. Most existing CLD models are based on the assumption that shear deformation in the core layer is the only source of damping in the structure. However, previous research has shown that other types of deformation in the core layer, such as deformations from longitudinal extension and transverse compression, can also be important. In the enhanced analytical model developed here, shear, extension, and compression deformations are all included. This model can be used to predict the natural frequencies and modal loss factors. The numerical study shows that compared to other models, this enhanced model is accurate in predicting the dynamic characteristics. As a result, the model can be accepted as a general computation model. With all three types of damping included and the formulation used here, it is possible to study the impact of the structure's geometry and boundary conditions on the relative contribution of each type of damping. To that end, the relative contributions in the frequency domain for a few sample cases are presented.     

Damping of stiffened plates by multiple layer treatments

It is shown in this paper that the modal damping and resonant frequencies of a stiffened plate structure, with a multiple layer constrained damping treatment attached to the surface, can be predicted from a knowledge of the equivalent complex modulus properties of the treatment. The equations used represent a simple extension of the classical equations of Oberst for a free layer treatment applied to an unstiffened beam or plate, with terms accounting for the effect of the stiffeners. The equivalent complex modulus properties of the treatment depend on a shear parameter, a geometrical parameter, the stiffness of the constraining layer and the loss factor of the adhesive. Experimental results are discussed.     

Numerical vibroacoustic analysis of plates with constrained-layer damping patches

A numerical vibroacoustic model that can manage multilayered plates locally covered with damping patches is presented. All the layers can have an on-axis orthotropic viscoelastic behavior. Continuity of displacements and transverse shear stresses at each interface is enforced, which permits to write the entire displacement field in function of the displacements of the--common--first layer, leading to a two-dimensional plate model. The problem is then discretized by Rayleigh-Ritz's method using a trigonometric basis that includes both sine and cosine functions in order to treat various boundary conditions. The excitation can be of mechanical kind (concentrated or distributed forces) or of acoustic kind (plane wave of any incidence, diffuse field, etc.). The model permits to compute different vibroacoustic indicators: the mean square velocity of the plate, the radiation efficiency, and the transmission loss. Comparisons between the present model and numerical results from literature or finite element computations show that the model gives good results in both mechanical and acoustical aspects. Then, a comparison of the effects of different distributions of patches is presented. The role of the surface covering rate is first discussed, followed by a study involving different geometries for the same surface covering rate.     

Vibration analysis of annular-like plates

The existence of eccentricity of the central hole for an annular plate results in a significant change in the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the structure. In this paper, the vibration analysis of annular-like plates is presented based on numerical and experimental approaches. Using the finite element analysis code Nastran, the effects of the eccentricity, hole size and boundary condition on vibration modes are investigated systematically through both global and local analyses. The results show that analyses for perfect symmetric conditions can still roughly predict the mode shapes of “recessive” modes of the plate with a slightly eccentric hole. They will, however, lead to erroneous results for “dominant” modes. In addition, the residual displacement mode shape is verified as an effective parameter for identifying damage occurring in plate-like structures. Experimental modal analysis on a clamped-free annular-like plate is performed, and the results obtained reveal good agreement with those obtained by numerical analysis. This study provides guidance on modal analysis, vibration measurement and damage detection of plate-like structures.     

Acoustic radiation from the submerged circular cylindrical shell treated with active constrained layer damping

Based on the transfer matrix method of exploring the circular cylindrical shell treated with active constrained layer damping(i.e., ACLD), combined with the analytical solution of the Helmholtz equation for a point source, a multi-point multipole virtual source simulation method is for the first time proposed for solving the acoustic radiation problem of a submerged ACLD shell. This approach, wherein some virtual point sources are assumed to be evenly distributed on the axial line of the cylindrical shell, and the sound pressure could be written in the form of the sum of the wave functions series with the undetermined coefficients, is demonstrated to be accurate to achieve the radiation acoustic pressure of the pulsating and oscillating spheres respectively. Meanwhile, this approach is proved to be accurate to obtain the radiation acoustic pressure for a stiffened cylindrical shell. Then, the chosen number of the virtual distributed point sources and truncated number of the wave functions series are discussed to achieve the approximate radiation acoustic pressure of an ACLD cylindrical shell. Applying this method, different radiation acoustic pressures of a submerged ACLD cylindrical shell with different boundary conditions, different thickness values of viscoelastic and piezoelectric layer, different feedback gains for the piezoelectric layer and coverage of ACLD are discussed in detail. Results show that a thicker thickness and larger velocity gain for the piezoelectric layer and larger coverage of the ACLD layer can obtain a better damping effect for the whole structure in general. Whereas, laying a thicker viscoelastic layer is not always a better treatment to achieve a better acoustic characteristic.     

通过周期环板和附连流体的两同心圆柱壳体间的振动耦合效应

理论研究了两个同心圆柱壳体间通过周期环饭和附连流体的耦合效应。在环板内只有准纵波存在的假定下,给出环板的反作用力的表达式,并建立外壳体的声辐射解析表达式。无限长双层壳体的数值分析结果和舱段模型的实验结果一致。通过数值结果同时分析了声学流体和周期环板的载荷特征,以及它们对外壳体远场声辐射的影响。     

Refined vibration and damping analysis of multilayered rectangular plates

Refined vibration and damping analysis of a general multilayered rectangular plate consisting of an arbitrary number of layers of orthotropic materials has been developed by considering extension, bending, in-plane shear and transverse shear deformations in all the layers and taking into account the rotary and longitudinal translatory inertias along with the transverse inertia of the plate. The solution for a multilayered plate with simply supported edges has been taken in series summation form and resonating frequencies and associated loss factors for plates with alternate elastic and viscoelastic layers have been evaluated by application of the correspondence principle of linear viscoelasticity. Results for three-, five- and seven-layered plates obtained by the present refined analysis are compared with the results obtained by conventional analysis of multilayered plates.     

Strategies for using cellular automata to locate constrained layer damping on vibrating structures

It is often hard to optimise constrained layer damping (CLD) for structures more complicated than simple beams and plates as its performance depends on its location, the shape of the applied patch, the mode shapes of the structure and the material properties. This paper considers the use of cellular automata (CA) in conjunction with finite element analysis to obtain an efficient coverage of CLD on structures. The effectiveness of several different sets of local rules governing the CA are compared against each other for a structure with known optimum coverage—namely a plate. The algorithm which attempts to replicate most closely known optimal configurations is considered the most successful. This algorithm is then used to generate an efficient CLD treatment that targets several modes of a curved composite panel. To validate the modelling approaches used, results are also presented of a comparison between theoretical and experimentally obtained modal properties of the damped curved panel.