Analysis of energy dissipation in an elastic moving string with a viscous damper at one end

In this paper transverse vibration of an axially moving viscoelastic string with a viscous damper at one end is investigated analytically. The string is assumed to be travelling with constant velocity and the length of string is constant or time varying. The linear and nonlinear mathematical models are derived using the Lagrangian function and implemented using a finite element method. The method considers a time varying state space function applied to the linear model, the Newmark-Beta method is used to solve the response for the nonlinear problem numerically. The case of energy dissipated by a viscoelastic damper at one end of the string for different axial string velocities is considered. When a disturbance arrives at the boundary an exact value for the damper which provides maximum energy dissipation is investigated. Finally, numerical simulations are presented to establish the feasibility of the method. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.