Studies of the Performance of Multi-Unit Impact Dampers Under Stochastic Excitation

Abstract

The performance of particle dampers whose behavior under broadband excitations involves internal friction and momentum transfer is a highly complex nonlinear process that is not amenable to exact analytical solutions. While numerous analytical and experimental studies have been conducted over many years to develop strategies for modeling and controlling the behavior of this class of vibration dampers, no guidelines currently exist for determining optimum strategies for maximizing the performance of particle dampers, whether in a single unit or in arrays of dampers, under random excitation. This paper focuses on the development and evaluation of practical design strategies for maximizing the damping efficiency of multi-unit particle dampers under random excitation, both the stationary and nonstationary type. High-fidelity simulation studies are conducted with a variable number of multi-unit dampers ranging from 1 to 100, with the magnitude of the “dead-space” nonlinearity being a random variable with a prescribed probability distribution spanning a feasible range of parameters. Results of the computational studies are calibrated with carefully conducted experiments with single-unit/single-particle, single-unit/multi-particle, and multiple-unit/multi-particle dampers. It is shown that a wide latitude exists in the trade-off between high vibration attenuation over a narrow range of damper gap size versus slightly reduced attenuation over a much broader range. The optimum configuration can be achieved through the use of multiple particle dampers designed in accordance with the procedure presented in the paper. A semi-active algorithm is introduced to improve the rms level reduction, as well as the peak response reduction. The utility of the approach is demonstrated through numerical simulation studies involving broadband stationary random excitations, as well as highly nonstationary excitations resembling typical earthquake ground motions.