Optimizing lightweight structures with particle damping using frequency based substructuring

Abstract

In many cases, the use of damping technologies is the only option to reduce undesired vibrations. Despite various damping techniques available on the market, the design of a precise damping behaviour still needs a lot of experimental testing and engineering experience. This is also the case for particle damping. However, for lightweight structures, technologies such as particle damping provide an opportunity to improve the structural dynamic behaviour without a large mass gain. With respect to this conflict, a hybrid numerical and experimental design approach is presented based on frequency based substructuring (FBS). With this technique, the use of experimental data for design optimization is possible and detailed modelling of the nonlinear particle damping system can be avoided. Moreover, based on the FBS, an approach to optimize damping and weight is proposed. All results are compared to experiments, and a subsequent discussion shows that the predictions for particle damping with FBS are accurate for defined operating points from which realistic designs can be derived. Generally, it is shown that methodical design approaches may strongly improve not only product development processes but also structural mechanical design.