Application of CLD for reduction of structure-borne noise in electronic enclosures

Large clusters of electronic equipment inside enclosures could generate structural vibrations and radiated noise. Depending on the location of an electronic enclosure, the internally generated vibrations and noise may be transmitted to the outside environment and create secondary problems. A customized constrained layer damper (CLD) solution was investigated for reducing structural vibrations and structure-borne noise. The elastomeric element of the CLD is based on a modified formula suitable for room temperature applications. A metal plate was used to represent an electronic enclosure wall. Vibrating metal plates with and without the application of CLD are evaluated. It is demonstrated that the metal plate with CLD showed 8 – 25 dB reduction of noise in the frequency range of 60 Hz to 1000 Hz. Results from the CLD tests are presented along with further considerations of CLD for application to electronic enclosures.