Meta-interface textures for increased frictional damping in elastic structures

Abstract

The unique behavior of acoustic and elastic metamaterials results from engineered subwavelength material composition and geometry. Though there has been a profusion of metamaterial research over the last two decades, relatively little focus has been on the dissipation of vibro-acoustic energy. Most research on metamaterials for acoustic damping have focused on viscous or viscoelastic effects [1]. However, the design of interfaces within materials or at connecting surfaces between elastic structures to amplify micro-friction events due to the relative motion of contacting surfaces is of interest for the reduction of vibro-acoustic energy. Dissipation due to friction is best represented as a nonlinear constitutive response. Here, we report on the use of friction via meta-interface textures to create interfaces with elevated damping, leading to increased macroscopic dissipation. We employ the five-parameter Bouc-Wen model to describe the complex behavior at these interfaces and study the influence of subwavelength interface texture on the parameters of the friction model. This increased dissipation from this approach can be used to reduce structural vibrations and the transmission of acoustical energy in structural components. [1] C. L. Bacquet et al., “Metadamping: Dissipation emergence in elastic metamaterials.” Adv. App. Mech. 51, 115i–164, (2018).