Performance and Mechanical Model of Viscoelastic Laminated Composite Dampers

Abstract

In this study, three types of viscoelastic laminated composite dampers (VLCDs) were fabricated and experimentally analyzed. The dampers were fabricated by adding mesh skeleton materials to acrylic rubber to increase its stiffness; this can provide greater restoring force to passive control structures under the same strain conditions. The mechanical properties of the VLCDs were studied by measuring the maximum shear stress, storage shear modulus, loss factor, and equivalent viscous damping ratio under the same ambient temperature and different loading schemes. The experimental results showed that: (1) the addition of aramid mesh skeleton material to the damper can improve its stiffness without changing the matrix of the damping material; (2) the strain amplitude significantly affects the mechanical properties of VLCDs; (3) the excitation frequency has a slight impact on these mechanical properties; and (4) the influence of large-strain low-cycle fatigue on these mechanical properties is significant during the first 15 cycles and less significant during the next 15 cycles. Furthermore, hysteresis curves were calculated and simulated using the Bouc-Wen-Baber-Noori model. The simulation and experimental results agreed well with each other.