Influence of cavity on the performance of particle damper under centrifugal loads

Abstract

Particle damping technology, which was developed from impact damping technology, has been successfully used in many fields for vibration reduction. However, the vibration reduction effect of a particle damper (PD) under centrifugal loads is poor and there have been few studies about it. Therefore, a particle damper under rotational conditions was modeled and the effect of the cavity was investigated in this paper. The cavity of the PD is a circular hole. The relationship of the normal pressure between particle layers and the depth in different orientations of the hole under centrifugal loads was established based on powder and soil mechanics. Moreover, the discrete element method was used to simulate the particle damper. In the conditions of rotation, the effects of the orientation and aspect ratio of the PD’s hole on the vibration reduction were studied. Results showed that the hole of the PD drilled perpendicular to the centrifugal load achieved better damping effect and a slender hole (the length is larger than the diameter) provided better vibration reduction effect. In addition, as the rotation speed increased, the optimal aspect ratio also increased. The results can be used as a guide in the design of particle dampers under rotational conditions.