Vibration damping capabilities of treatments with frequency and temperature dependent viscoelastic material properties

Abstract

Due to their low mass and stiffening components like frames, stringers and panels, aircraft fuselage structures are prone to vibration. In order to improve acoustic comfort inside a cabin, specific vibration damping of such components would be helpful. Most common damping layouts make use of a viscoelastic material as the main source of vibration energy dissipation. Such material is placed at sensitive positions of a structure to absorb the energy of operational deflection shapes of concern. However, the material behavior of viscoelastic materials varies considerably with frequency and temperature and needs to be considered during the design process. In this paper, a finite element approach for local modelling of viscoelastic damping is presented. A viscoelastic material with frequency and temperature dependent properties is introduced as a dedicated damping material for aeronautic applications. Using the FE method, the consequences of temperature and frequency influence on the vibration damping capability of a Constrained Layer Damping treatment with the particular damping material are presented.