Experimental study on the influence of vibration amplitude on the fluid damping of a submerged disk

Accurate determination of modal parameters for disk-like structures submerged in heavy fluids is a topic of interest in many fields. For instance, some type of hydraulic turbomachinery can be modeled as disk structures due to the similarity in their mode shapes. Although in the recent years many studies have analyzed and correctly predicted the fluid added mass effect on the natural frequencies and mode shapes of these types of structures, it is particularly challenging to determine fluid damping and characterize its most influential effects. In this article, the influence of vibration amplitude on the fluid damping ratio of a submerged disk, when the disk gets close to a rigid wall, is analytically and experimentally studied. Particularly, the first diametrical modes of the disk have been analyzed at different vibration amplitudes and at very small distances away from a rigid surface. The disk is put in a resonant state by means of a piezoelectric patch generating a harmonic excitation and the response is measured by means of a Laser Doppler Vibrometer (LDV). The damping ratio is obtained directly from the vibrating free decay following a sudden stop of the excitation. It is shown that the fluid damping ratio values are related to the vibration amplitude: there is a trend of increasing damping ratio as the amplitude of the vibration increases. This effect is found to be much larger for small distances between the disk and the rigid surface.