Increasing Damping of Thin-Walled Structures Using Additively Manufactured Vibration Eliminators

The paper presents a new way to conduct passive elimination of vibrations consisting of covering elements of structures with low dynamic stiffness with polylactide (PLA). The PLA cover was created in 3D printing technology. The PLA cover was connected with the structure by means of a press connection. Appropriate arrangement of the PLA cover allows us to significantly increase the dissipation properties of the structure. The paper presents parametric analyses of the influence of the thickness of the cover and its distribution on the increase of the dissipation properties of the structure. Both analyses were carried out using finite element models (FEM). The effectiveness of the proposed method of increasing damping and the accuracy of the developed FEM models was verified by experimental studies. As a result, it has been proven that the developed FEM model of a free-free steel beam covered with polylactide enables the mapping of resonance frequencies at a level not exceeding 0.6% of relative error. Therefore, on its basis, it is possible to determine the parameters of the PLA cover. Comparing a free-free steel beam without cover with its PLA-covered counterpart, a reduction in the amplitude levels of the receptance function was achieved by up to 90%. The solution was validated for a steel frame for which a 37% decrease in the amplitude of the receptance function was obtained.