Damping capacity improvement of machine structures by close packing with balls

Abstract

This paper deals with an experimental investigation on damping characteristics of structures packed with balls. The structures for testing are square pipes packed with glass balls. The effects of impulse magnitude, square pipe dimensions, ball size and excitation directions on damping characteristics are investigated. The experiments show that the damping characteristics are markedly affected by the ball size, and the damping capacity is improved by the ball packing. It is also shown that the damping capacity is affected by the packing arrangements, packing ratio and repulsion coefficient. Dramatic improvement in damping capacity is achieved by leaving only a small space between the packed balls and the inner surface of the square pipe. This fact is confirmed experimentally.