Passive Damping Device for Sandwich Structures

In many technical areas structural vibration loads are safety critical design drivers. Here, the improvement of reliability and safety, the reduction of mass, the extension of service life, as well as the reduction of manufacturing cost are desired. Especially lightweight structural design in general is a compromise between mass and robustness with regard to dynamic loads. The structural stresses and strains due to displacements caused by dynamic loads can be reduced by mechanical damping based on passive or active measures. Passive damping systems do not require electronics, control algorithms, power, actuators, sensors or complex maintenance. The simple physical effect of passive dampers is based on the dissipation of load induced energy. The patent DE10138250 (November 2008) described in the present paper is based on the function of a very simple passive friction-damping device for sandwich structures. Regarding this invention, passive friction elements are placed between the face sheets of composite sandwich panels. The damping effect is verified by simple tests.