Frequency power law of material damping

The experimental studies often show that the damping in various solid materials increases with frequency over a finite bandwidth, and the increase is weak if the damping is low. A frequency power law is suggested and discussed in this paper to describe this damping behaviour with special respect to the low loss resilient materials used for sound and vibration control. The dynamic modulus as a function of frequency is determined from the loss modulus through the Kramers-Kronig dispersion relations to satisfy the causality requirement. It is proved that the dynamic modulus obeys the frequency power law of the same type as the loss modulus. In addition, it is proved that the weak frequency dependences of damping properties are inevitably associated with the low loss factor. Examples of fitting the frequency power law to experimental data on some materials of acoustical purposes are presented. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.