Vibration of an excitation system supported flexibly on a viscoelastic sandwich beam at its mid-point

A vibration analysis of an excitation system supported flexibly on a three layer sandwich beam is presented in this paper. The flexibly supported excitation system, which is essentially the primary system, consists of a mass, a spring and a dash-pot. The beam is analyzed separately as a continuous system in a classical way and then its dynamic stiffness at the junction point is combined with that of the primary system to obtain the resultant dynamic stiffness, which in turn is used to develop the expressions for the response of the primary system and the transmissibility provided by the whole system. Both response and transmissibility are evaluated for different geometrical and physical parameters of the sandwich beam. The solution to this problem is also obtained by approximating the sandwich beam by a lumped mass supported on a spring and dash-pot. The results in the two cases are compared. Results obtained from an experimental test-rig substantiate the theoretical results.