Damping characteristics of particle dampers—some preliminary results

Abstract Particle dampers offer considerable potential for suppressing structural resonant conditions over a wide frequency range compared with tuned mass dampers or tuned vibration absorbers. However, they exhibit non-linear behaviour which relates to the motion of the particles that in turn is dependent on the excitation level. This communication describes some preliminary experimental results on the damping characteristics of a particle damping device which clearly show that the damping levels are dependent on the geometry of the device and the resulting motion of the particles arising from the level of the input excitation.