Frictional bi-constrained strips and the applications in energy dissipation

Abstract

This study investigates friction effect on postbuckling behavior of bi-constrained strips. We develop a frictional large deformation model to study the mechanical response of bi-walled strips subjected to axial compression. The Euler-Bernoulli beam theory is used to obtain the theoretical model, and an energy method is introduced to solve for the postbuckling response, i.e., force-displacement relationship and strip deflection configuration, by minimizing the total energy of the strip-constraints system. Dry friction between the strips and bi-walls is characterized by considering the friction energy. To validate the proposed model, we reduce it to frictionless and compare with the theoretical models in the literature, experiments and numerical simulations, and satisfactory agreements are obtained. Using the presented theoretical and numerical models, we investigate the effects of friction and bilateral walls on the postbuckling behavior and energy dissipation of the bi-constrained strips. Density plots are reported to demonstrate the influences of the friction coefficient μ and constraints gap h on the deflection shape difference DiffShape between the frictional and frictionless models. Eventually, the energy dissipation ratio RED is investigated between the loading and unloading phases using the frictional model. The frictional large deformation model presented in this study can be used to tune the postbuckling response and energy dissipation of strip-constraints systems for multifunctional applications such as damping or mechanical trigger.