Experimental Investigation of Damping Properties of Selected Polymer Materials

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an experimental modal analysis of a beam covered by polymer materials used as a passive vibration isolation. The main aim of this study was to determine the damping properties of selected viscoelastic materials. In order to check the damping properties of tested materials, an experimental modal analysis, with the use of an electrodynamic vibration system, was performed. In this study, four kinds of specimens were considered. In the first step of the work, the beam made out of aluminum alloy was investigated. Afterwards, a cantilever beam was covered with a layer of bitumen-based material acting as a damper. This method is commonly known as a free layer damping treatment (FLD). In order to increase the damping capabilities, the previous configuration was improved by fixing a thin aluminum layer directly to the viscoelastic core. Such a treatment is called constrained layer damping (CLD). Subsequently, another polymer (butyl rubber) in the CLD configuration was tested for its damping properties. As a result of the performed experimental modal analysis, the frequencies of resonant vibrations and their corresponding amplitudes were obtained. The experimental results were used to quantitatively evaluate the damping properties of tested materials.

Keywords

• viscoelastic materials
• passive vibration isolation
• experimental modal analysis
• free layer damping (FLD)
• constrained layer damping (CLD)