A new approximate method of finding the loss factors of a sandwich cantilever

Extensively used methods for finding the loss factors of sandwich designs are predominantly based on the assumption, for the sake of simplicity, that only symmetrical boundary conditions occur. In this paper a new approximate method for the calculation of loss factors and other dynamical characteristics of the damped normal modes for sandwich beams with arbitrary boundary conditions is developed. Based on the linearization of a hysteretically damped sandwich beam in the neighborhood of the corresponding undamped beam, the theory has a number of advantages from the analytical and computational points of view. The method is applied to a damped sandwich cantilever. Numerical results for the fundamental damped normal mode as well as a comparison with the exact method are presented graphically.