Impact Damper With Granular Materials for Multibody System

Abstract

An efficient impact damper consists of a bed of granular materials moving in a container mounted on a multibody vibrating system. This paper deals with the damping characteristics of a multidegree-of-freedom (MDOF) system that is provided with the impact damper when the damper may be applied to any point of the system. In the theoretical analysis, the particle bed is assumed to be a mass which moves unidirectionally in a container, and collides plastically with its end. Equations of motion are developed for an equivalent single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) system and attached damper mass with use made of the normal mode approach. The modal mass is estimated such that it represents the equivalent mass on the point of maximum displacement in each of the vibrating modes. The mass ratio is modified with the modal vector to include the effect of impact interactions. Results of the analysis are applied to the special case of a three-degree-of-freedom (3DOF) system, and the effects of the damper parameteres including mode shapes and damper locations are determined. A digital model is also formulated to simulate the damped motion of the physical system.