An Analytical and Experimental Analysis for a One-Dimensional Passive Stand-Off Layer Damping Treatment

Passive stand-off layer (PSOL) damping treatments are presently being implemented in many commercial and defense designs. In a passive stand-off layer damping treatment, a stand-off or spacer layer is added to a conventional passive constrained layer (PCL) damping treatment. An analytical model which quantifies the bending and shearing contributions of the stand-off layer has been developed for a passive stand-off layer damping treatment applied to a beam. The equations of motion were derived and solved in order to simulate the frequency responses of several beams treated with passive stand-off layer damping. A series of experiments was conducted in order to test this analytical model. These experiments measured the frequency responses of a variety of beams treated with passive stand-off layer damping treatments. The experimentally measured results were normalized and calibrated and then compared with the theoretical predictions using the new analytical model. This comparison showed that the analytical model was able to predict very accurately the frequency responses of the beams treated with passive stand-off layer damping.