Dependence of damping characteristics of a beam with damping rubber magnetic powder on rubber property

ABSTRACTA cantilever beam with Damping Material Applying Rubber Magnetic Powder (DRM) has been investigated. Two methods are selected to hold DRM to a vibrating steel beam, one is to attach DRM by the magnetic attractive force (called DRM beam) and the other by adhesive bonding (called AB-DRM beam). Different from the damping property of AB-DRM beam caused by shear deformation of damping material, the damping property of DRM beam is characterized by the sliding frictional loss together with the internal loss of damping material. The authors established a formulation to predict the damping characteristics of DRM beam, which was validated experimentally. It is found that rubber material loss factor β has a decisive influence on damping improvement of DRM beam versus AB-DRM beam. If β is smaller than the critical value around 0.8255, a valid range of vibratory amplitude always exists in which DRM beam can achieve better damping than AB-DRM beam; conversely, if β is bigger than the critical value, the valid range does not exist when slide occurs. Such results are used to determine the merits and limitations of DRM and develop design guidelines.