Thickness Deformation of Constrained Layer Damping: An Experimental and Theoretical Evaluation

This paper presents a study of thickness deformation of the viscoelastic material in constrained layer damping (CLD) treatments. The first goal of the study is to demonstrate the feasibility of using direct measurement to investigate thickness deformation in CLD treatments. The experimental setup consisted of a constrained layer beam cantilevered to a shaker, an accelerometer mounted at the cantilevered end, and two laser vibrometers that simultaneously measured the responses of the base beam and the constraining layer, respectively, at the free end. A spectrum analyzer calculated frequency response functions (FRFs) between the accelerometer inputs and the vibrometer outputs. Measured FRFs of the base beam and the constraining layer were compared to detect thickness deformation. Experimental results showed that direct measurements can detect thickness deformation as low as 0.5 percent. The second goal is to evaluate the accuracy of a mathematical model developed by Miles and Reinhall [7] that accounts for thickness deformation. FRFs were calculated by using the method of distributed transfer functions by Yang and Tan [13]. Comparison of the numerical results with the experimental measurements indicated that consideration of thickness deformation can improve the accuracy of existing constrained layer damping models when the viscoelastic layer is thick.