Damping Parameter Identification and Study of Metal Foam Filled Steel Tube

Abstract

Increasing the damping level is an important approach toward the rise of earthquake resistance capability of a structure. In this paper, the steel tube is filled with metal foam for increasing its damping level. A parameter identification method is developed for studying the contribution of different metal foams to the damping. Specimens of steel tubes of 1.2- and 2.4-mm wall thickness filled with open cell pure aluminum, close cell pure aluminum and close cell aluminum alloy are fabricated and experimentally studied with the developed parameter identification method. It is found from the experiment that under large excitation, the open cell pure aluminum foam and close cell aluminum alloy can increase the components’ damping level up to five times comparing with the steel tube itself.