Numerical investigation of Linear Particle Chain impact dampers with friction

Impact dampers were first introduced in 1934 and the research and development on improving their performance and configuration is still ongoing to date. In this paper, the recently developed Linear Particle Chain (LPC) impact damper is experimentally and numerically studied. The damper was attached to a single-degree-of-freedom structure represented by a spring damper system and released from an initial position. A SOLIDWORKS model for the damper has been developed and numerically simulated using the finite element approach. The Coulomb friction model of the colliding masses is added to the overall structure. The response of the system was analyzed and compared to the experimental results. The simulation model showed a faster decay when the number of balls in the LPC impact damper was increased and when different mass ratios were used which is in agreement with the experimental results.