Optimizing Hyperdamping Materials for Enhancing Vibration Control and Shock Attenuation Properties

To reduce unwanted mechanical vibrations in automotive, aerospace, and civil engineering fields, recent research has investigated periodic metamaterials having especially architected topologies. Yet, these solutions employ heavy materials and narrowband, resonant phenomena which are unsuitable for the many applications where broadband frequency vibration energy is a concern and weight is a performance penalty. To overcome these limitations, a new idea for hyperdamping materials is recently being explored, such that improved vibration damping is achieved without the drawbacks of the conventional periodic metamaterials. On the other hand, optimized designs of hyperdamping materials have not been determined which suggests that best practices for design and implementation are needed. The objectives of this research are to identify optimized, architected topologies of hyperdamping materials having square cross-sections, and to study the roles of the significance of beam buckling and ability to reduce mass according to the porosity of the architected internal geometry. Through finite element simulations, new designs are evaluated to investigate the roles of geometric design and to guide the fabrication for testing. With impact experiments, it is seen that the tapered internal geometry design leads to a greater instantaneous acceleration amplitude immediately after impact while more rapidly attenuating the energy when compared to the solid elastomer mass. With shaker experiments, both the tapered and periodic voids designs show enhanced wave attenuation over broadband frequency ranges from 2 to 10 kHz when compared to the solid elastomer that is indeed heavier. The results show that square cross-section hyperdamping materials provide rapid suppression of broadband impact and wave energies in square-section structures that are utilized in numerous engineering applications.No embargoAcademic Major: Mechanical Engineerin