Design of a viscoelastic layer by incorporating graphite wafers in a zig-zag pattern for the augmented hybrid damping treatment of beam

Abstract

Abstract In the present work, the ascendancy of actively constrained zig-zag 1-3 viscoelastic composite (VEC) layer on hybrid damping is studied. For this analysis, structural beam is taken that consists of substrate layer/beam, constrained zig-zag 1-3 VEC layer and constraining extension actuated piezoelectric layer. The zig-zag 1-3 VEC is configured by incorporating graphite wafers in zig-zag pattern within conventional viscoelastic material (VEM). In order to investigate the hybrid damping characteristics, the finite element (FE) model for structural beam is evolved. In order to study the ascendancy of incorporating graphite wafers in zig-zag pattern within VEM layer, initially, bending and shear strain distributions are evaluated. Moreover, optimal geometrical configuration of present zig-zag 1-3 VEC layer is obtained based on maximal hybrid damping using exhaustive search optimization technique. The results reveal that the augmentation in energy dissipation or hybrid damping for the beam with zig-zag 1-3 VEC layer occurs due to rise in both bending and shear strain in VEM by incorporating graphite wafers in zig-zag pattern while for conventional VEM layer it occurs due to shear strain only. And this augmented energy dissipation ameliorates extension and shear counterparts as well as overall modal loss factor of beam with actively constrained zig-zag 1-3 VEC layer compared to conventional VEM layer.