Damping Characteristics of Metal Rubber in the Pipeline Coating System

The reduction of vibration in submarine pipeline systems at high temperatures has always been a difficult problem. This paper aims to reduce the vibration of pipeline systems by using coated metal rubber. A theoretical model of the cladding damping structure, formed on the basis of the bilinear hysteresis model, is established. The mechanical model of the single degree of freedom hysteretic system is linearly equivalent to using the linearization method. The theoretical analysis indicates that the regularity of the stiffness of metal rubber decreases, and the damping increases, with the increase of the excitation amplitude. Experimental verification confirmed this analysis after an experimental system for pipelines coated by metal rubber was developed. A method for preparing the thin sheet of metal rubber, which is the damping layer, was introduced. At the same time, the force transfer rate and the structural loss factor were proposed to characterize the damping performance of the cladding damping structure. The vibration absorption characteristics of the cladding damping structure, along with its forming density, number of coating layers, and excitation magnitude, are investigated by means of the experimental method. The results indicate that the damping performance of metal rubber decreases with the increase of forming density, and the damping performance of metal rubber increases with the increase of the number of cladding layers and the magnitude of excited vibration.