Experimental Studies on Active Vibration Control of a Beam Using Hybrid Active∕Passive Constrained Layer Damping Treatments

Hybrid damping designs with active piezoelectric materials and passive viscoelastic materials (VEMs) combine the advantages of both active and passive constrained layer damping treatments. In this study, experiments have been conducted on nine systems viz., bare beam, active damping (AD), passive constrained layer damping (PCLD—three variants) and hybrid active∕passive constrained layer damping (Hybrid AD∕PCLD—four variants). Based on the time domain analysis of these systems, it is shown that the “best” performance is obtained using a hybrid damping configuration wherein the VEM and the piezoelectric layers are acting separately.