Frictional damping in hollow beam structures joined by bolts, rivets, and adhesive

Abstract

The objective of this work was to investigate how different joining techniques affect the level of damping in structures. Beams were constructed from four different joining techniques, bolting, riveting, adhesive bonding, and brazing by joining two lengths of steel each with a ‘U’-shaped cross-section. They were joined such that the edges of the ‘U’ overlapped to form a tube. The damping of each beam was determined by flexural vibration. The bolted beam had a series of bolts along its length. The effect of removing bolts was investigated. It was found that removing bolts increased damping. When bolts were removed successively from holes at the end of the beam, the damping increased more than when bolts were removed from holes in the middle of the beam. A further objective of this project was to investigate the effect of introducing penetrant between two surfaces. WD-40 was introduced between the contacting surfaces for the beams joined by mechanical fastening. The penetrant had the effect of increasing damping. This may be because the penetrant has the effect of increasing the relative displacement between the two beams, leading to greater energy dissipation. Introducing penetrant also changed the order of which beam had the greatest damping, with the bolted beam now having greater damping than the riveted beam. The effect of increasing bolt tension on the bolted beam was also investigated. When the beams were dry, increasing bolt tension reduced the damping, but when penetrant was introduced increasing the bolt tension increased the damping. A comparison between the damping properties from different joining techniques was made. The conclusions could be applied in industry by engineers constructing beams of a similar fashion.