Development of a design curve for Particle Impact Dampers

Particle impact dampers (PIDs) are enclosures partially filled with particles of various sizes and materials. When attached to a vibrating structure, they add damping by dissipating energy through inelastic particle-enclosure collisions as well as through momentum transfer. The development of a design curve that can be used to predict the damping characteristics of particle impact dampers is presented here. A power measurement technique enabled time-efficient measurement of the damping properties of the PID. This technique enjoys several advantages over traditional loss-factor measurements, including the flexibility to analyze the behavior of the PID at any frequency or amplitude of the excitation, and the ability to estimate the damping contribution for any structure operating within the bounds of the design curve. Using the power measurement technique, a large number of experiments were conducted to determine the effects of vibration amplitude, excitation frequency, gap size, nominal particle diameter, and particle mass on the dissipated power and effective mass of the PID. The power data were then systematically collapsed into a pair of two-dimensional master design curves with non-dimensional quantities for the axes. The quantities are comprised of combinations of design parameters. For specific applications, a “damping efficiency” of the PID may be predicted from the design curves. A physical interpretation of the design curves is given. The performance of a PID on a structure verified the predictive capabilities.