On Vibration Suppression and Energy Dissipation Using Tuned Mass Particle Damper

Particle damping has the promising potential for attenuating the unwanted vibrations in harsh environment. However, the damping performance of the conventional particle damper (PD) may be ineffective, especially when the acceleration of the particle damper is less than gravitational acceleration (1g). In order to improve the damping performance of the traditional PD, the tuned mass particle damper (TMPD) which utilizes the advantages of both the tuned mass damper and particle damper is investigated in this paper. The TMPD can act as the tuned mass damper to not only absorb the vibration of the primary structure but also amplify the motions of the particles in the enclosure, which will significantly enhance the particle damping effect. To analyze the damping effect of the TMPD, a new coupling method to integrate the TMPD into the continuous host structure is first developed. The 3D discrete element method is then adopted to accurately describe and analyze the motion of particles in the enclosure. Furthermore, the analysis is validated by correlating the numerical and experimental results. With the new method as basis, detailed numerical studies are further carried out to verify the damping effectiveness of the TMPD compared with conventional PD under various excitation levels. The results demonstrate that the TMPD can significantly improve the damping effect of the conventional PD on suppressing the vibration of the primary structure under both the low and high excitation levels.