Experimental and finite element analysis of stand-off layer damping treatments for beams

Passive stand-off layer (PSOL) and slotted stand-off layer (SSOL) damping treatments are presently being implemented in many commercial and defense designs. In a PSOL damping treatment, a stand-off or spacer layer is added to a conventional passive constrained layer damping treatment. In an SSOL damping treatment, slots are included in the stand-off layer A set of experiments using PSOL and SSOL beams in which the geometric properties of the stand-off layer were varied was conducted to analyze the contribution of the stand-off layer to the overall system damping. This set of experiments measured the frequency response functions for a series of beams in which the total slotted area of the stand-off layer was held constant while the number of slots in the stand-off layer was increased for a constant stand-off layer material. Finite element analysis models were developed in ANSYS to compare the predicted frequency response functions with the experimentally measured frequency response junctions for the beams treated with PSOL and SSOL damping treatments. In these beams, the bonding layers used to fabricate these treatments were found to have a measurable and significant effect on the frequency response of the structure. The finite element model presented here thus included an epoxy layer between the base beam and the stand-off layer a contact cement layer between the stand-off layer and the viscoelastic layer, and a method for modeling delamination.