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Damping of Flexural Vibration by Low-Density Foams and Granular Materials

Article · January 2003

DOI: 10.1115/DETC2003/VIB-48534

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 Proceedings of DETC’03
2003 ASME Design Engineering Technical Conferences
September 2-6, 2003, Chicago, Illinois USA

DETC2003/VIB-48534

DAMPING OF FLEXURAL VIBRATION BY LOW-DENSITY FOAMS AND GRANULAR

MATERIALS

Kripa K. Varanasi and Samir A. Nayfeh†

Department of Mechanical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts

ABSTRACT given added mass. Based on extensive experimental results, Pa-

The damping of flexural vibration by introduction of a layer
of low-density foam or powder into a structure is investigated.
First, we report on experiments in which a layer of foam at-
tached to an aluminum beam gives rise to significant damping
at frequencies high enough to induce standing waves in the foam
layer. Next, we provide a simple model for such vibration in
which the foam is treated as a two-dimensional elastic contin-
uum in which waves can propagate and find that the model is in
good agreement with the experiments. Then the results of exper-
iments in which aluminum beams are filled with a low-density
powder are presented. The powder-filled beams exhibit behavior
qualitatively like that of the foam-filled beams, but we find that
the powder can be adequately modeled as an inviscid compress-
ible fluid.
1 Introduction
The introduction of a granular material or foam into a struc-
ture or machine is a relatively simple and low-cost approach to
attenuation of vibration. Traditionally, dense granular fills (such
as sand, lead shot, or steel balls) have been selected for such ap-
plications in order to obtain strong coupling between the struc-
ture and the granular material. Several researchers in the past
have studied the use of granular materials for vibration damp-
ing. Papalou and Masri [1, 2] and Fowler et al. [3] show that
a container filled with granular material and coupled to a struc-
ture can be designed to achieve relatively high damping for a


Graduate Research Assistant, kripa@mit.edu
† Assistant Professor, nayfeh@mit.edu
palou and Masri [1, 2] have developed an approximate method
to predict the damping attained by dampers filled with steel balls
of various sizes. Fowler et al. employed a particle-dynamics
simulation to model the behavior of a particle damper [3]. In
these studies involving relatively large, high-density particles,
the damping mechanism is strongly nonlinear because it is the
result of impacts and sliding among the particles. As reported by
Fowler et al. [3], little damping is obtained at very low ampli-
tudes of vibration.
Cremer and Heckl [4] suggested that a granular material
such as sand can be modeled as a continuum, and that damping in
a structure filled with such a granular material can be increased
by adjusting dimensions so that standing waves can occur in the
granular material at the resonant frequencies of the structure. Sun
et al. [5] modeled sand as a fluid and used statistical energy anal-
ysis to predict the damping in structures coupled to sand.
Richards and Lenzi [6] carried out several experiments on
sand-filled tubes and have studied the influence of the quantity
of sand, grain size, cavity shape and size, and the direction and
amplitude of excitation. They report that damping attains a max-
imum at frequencies where resonances can be set up in the gran-
ular medium. Bourinet and Le Houedec [7] expanded on the
ideas of Cremer and Heckl and developed a quantitative model
for the vibration of beams filled with granular materials. They
model compressive waves in the granular material in the direc-
tion transverse to the vibration to develop an “apparent mass”,
which they couple to a Timoshenko beam. However, these high-
density fills add a great deal of mass to a structure and hence are
rarely used where weight is a concern.


1 Copyright c 2003 by ASME

 Wave propagation and flow of granular materials has been
an active research area for many years [8]. Nearly 175 years ago,
Faraday studied the interaction between a vibrating body and
a granular material and found that heavy particles move to the
nodes of vibration, but light particles move to the antinodes [9].
Recent experiments by Fricke [10] and Nayfeh et.al. [11] indi-
cate that such low-density particles can provide high damping of
structural vibration if the speed of sound in the fill is sufficiently
low.
In this paper, we study the flexural dynamics of beams cou-
pled to media such as foam and granular material in which the
speed of sound propagation is much lower than that in the beam.
Foam materials are commonly employed for sound absorption
and noise control (e.g., Kinsler et. al. [12]; Beranek and Ver [13])
in aircraft and automobiles. They are also widely used as absorp-
tive liners in anechoic chambers, air conditioning systems, intake
and exhaust ducts of turbines, and large industrial fans among
other applications. In Section 2.1, we report on experiments in
which coupling an aluminum beam to foam provides significant
damping over a broad band of frequencies for a relatively low in-
crease in mass. Next in Section 2.2, we develop a simple, linear
model in which an Euler-Bernoulli beam is coupled to a foam
material in which dilatation and shear waves can propagate. Us-
ing a modal expansion, we obtain the accelerance of such a beam
under various boundary conditions. The results of the model are
found to be in close agreement with the responses measured in
the experiments.
In Section 3.1, we report on experiments in which aluminum
beams filled with low-density granular material exhibit signifi-
cant damping (as high as 6%) in the first two modes of the beam.
Next, in Section 3.2, we develop a simple, linear model similar
to that of the foam, idealizing the granular material as a com-
pressible fluid. Using the model developed in Section 3.2 and
the properties of the powder (such as its speed of sound and loss
factor) documented in the Appendix, we obtain the accelerance
of the beam under various boundary conditions. The results of
the model are found to be in close agreement with the measured
responses.
2 Damping using Foams
2.1 Experiments
We report on experiments conducted on an aluminum beam
(1447.8 38.1 12.7 mm) coupled to a 12.7 mm layer of EAR C-
3201 (EAR Corporation [14]) energy-absorbing foam using 3M
Contact 80 neoprene adhesive (3M Corporation [15]). The den-
sity of the foam is 104.1 kg/m3 , and its stiffness and loss factor
are available from the manufacturer’s data sheets [14], but the
effective complex stiffness of the foam varies somewhat from lot
to lot and with frequency. In [16], a set of experiments were
carried out to measure the complex extensional and shear stiff-
2 Copyright c 2003 by ASME
nesses of the foam and their values were found to be, respec-



tively, 106 1 0 3 j kPa and 38 9 1 0 4 j kPa. Based on these
      
measurements, we calculate the complex wave speeds in dilata-



tion and shear to be 32 3 1 0 15 j m/s and 19 7 1 0 20 j m/s,
       
respectively.
In all of the experiments, the beams are suspended by light
elastic strings to simulate free-free boundary conditions. An
electromagnetic shaker provides an excitation at one end of the
beam via a force transducer (PCB 208B [17]). The response is
measured by an accelerometer (PCB 333A30 [17]) located at the
same end of the beam as the shaker. A chirp excitation is gener-
ated by a dynamic signal analyzer and supplied to the shaker via
an amplifier.
In Figure 1, we plot the force-to-acceleration frequency re-
sponses obtained for the aluminum beam with and without the
foam layer. As expected, the beam without foam exhibits very
little damping, with ζ 0 002 for each of the first ten modes.
 
When a layer of foam of thickness 12.7 mm is glued to the alu-
minum beam, the increase in damping in the first five modes is
very small, but there is a significant increase in the damping of
the sixth and higher modes. Based on the speeds of sound com-
puted in the foregoing, we find that the sixth mode occurs in a
frequency range where quarter-wavelength dilatation and half-
wavelength shear waves can be set up through the thickness of
the foam. This suggests that the damping in the frequency range
of 600 to 1600 Hz is the result of strong coupling between the
beam and foam arising from the establishment of standing waves
through the thickness of the foam.
2.2 Model
In this section, we develop a model by which the responses
measured in Section 2.1 can be predicted. We consider a beam
of length L, flexural stiffness EI, and mass per unit length m.
A layer of foam is coupled to the beam as shown in Figure 2.
The beam is excited by a point-harmonic force at a frequency ω
and distance x f from one end of the beam. We employ a simple
Euler-Bernoulli model for the beam and consider the foam to be
a lossy and isotropic continuum in which waves of dilatation and
distortion can propagate.
The foam material used in the experiments described in Sec-
tion 2.1 is an elastic-porous medium. It is known that three types
of waves can propagate in such media: two types of dilatation
waves and a shear wave (e.g., Biot [18]; Bolton et.al. [19]). One
of the dilatation waves depends largely on the bulk elastic prop-
erties of the material of the foam and the other on the acoustical
properties of the fluid in the pores, the porosity, and the flow re-
sistivity. Hence the former and latter are respectively referred to
as frame and airborne waves. The stress induced on the beam
by the fluidic component of the foam scales as the product of the
bulk modulus of the air in the pores times the volumetric strain
in air. Hence although this type of wave can have a significant

 80

Response Magnitude (dB) 60

40

20

−20

−40
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
Frequency (Hz)

Figure 1. Measured force-to-acceleration frequency responses under chirp excitation: without foam (dotted) and with foam (solid)
























































 
 










































































































































   

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



























































































   


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

σy x 0



                             


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 










































































































































































































































 
  τx0


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 




 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



  
   


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 




 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



   
  
M V V dV M dM




 

 

 

 y 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 













 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 



 


 


 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 














































































































































 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 





 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 

 



 
 
dx


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

















L


















 

 
 







 


 


 


 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 





 

 

 

 x



  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 



 

 

 



 

 

 



 

 

 



 

 

 



 

 

 



 

 

 



 

 

 



 

 

 



 

 















 



 

    

   



  





 



 









 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 z 

 

 








 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 h


 

 


 

 


 

   hf Figure 3.
dx
Free-body diagram of an infinitesimal beam element of length

Figure 2. Schematic of the beam-foam system

a linear and isotropic continuum (e.g., Timoshenko and Good-

ier [20]):
influence on sound transmission, we can safely neglect its effect
on the vibration of the beam. Therefore, we treat the foam as an
isotropic continuum with a complex Young’s modulus of elas- λ λ ρω2u
ticity E f Ê f 1 jη sgn ω , loss factor η, and Poisson ratio ν

2G uxx Guyy G vxy 0 (1)

ρω v
      

λ λ 2

Gvxx 2G vyy G uxy 0 (2)

 

in which waves of dilatation and distortion arising from the bulk

      

properties of the material can propagate (e.g., Timoshenko and

where the subscripts denote partial differentiation and ρ, λ

Goodier [20]).

νE f  1 ν 1
2ν , and G are respectively, the density, com-

  

2.2.1 Equations of Motion Consider steady vibration plex Lame constant, and complex shear modulus of the mate-
of the beam-foam system of Figure 2 under harmonic excitation rial of the foam. To obtain the equation governing the vibratory
at a frequency ω by a point force Re Fδ x
x f e jωt . We de-

  motion of the beam, we consider an infinitesimal element of the

note the vibratory deflection of the beam under such an excita- beam of length dx shown in Figure 3. At the interface of the beam
tion by Re(V x  ω e jωt ) and the deformations of the foam in the and foam (at y 0), the normal stress σy x  0  ω contributes to

x and y directions by Re(u x  y ω e jωt ) and Re(v x  y ω e jωt ), re- a force in y direction whereas the shear stress τxy x  0  ω results
 

spectively. The deformations u x  y ω and v x  y ω in the foam

  

  in a moment about the neutral axis. Making use of the above in-
are governed by the following second-order wave equations of teraction between the foam and beam, we write the equation for


3 Copyright c 2003 by ASME

the deflection V of the beam in the form beam:

d 4V bh ∂τxy x  0  ω

αn x


bσy x  0  ω
Fδ x
x f

EI 4 mω V 2



sin kn x pn cos kn x (9)

   

∂x
 

dx 2 βn x

sinh kn x

pn cosh kn x

(10)
(3)    

where b and h are, respectively, the width and height of the beam.
where kn is the wave number of the nth mode of the beam and pn
2.2.2 Boundary Conditions for the Foam At the is a constant given by
interface between the foam and beam (at y 0), we require that
sin kn L
sinh kn L
pn
the deformations in the foam match those of the surface of the

cosh kn L
cos kn L
(11)
 

beam. Hence we obtain



v x 0 ω


V x ω

 (4) Next, we assume compatible deformations in the foam of the

u x 0 ω

h2 ∂V (5)
form
∂x


∞ 
∑
At the free surface of the foam (at y h f ), the normal and shear v x  y ω χn y  ω α n ξn y ω βn x 

  x     (12)

n 1
stresses must vanish. Hence we have ∞ 
u x  y ω

∑ φn y ω αn x  kn

ψn y ω βn x  kn  (13)

     

λux x  h f  ω λ 2G vy x  h f  ω

n 1
0 (6)

    

uy x  h f  ω v x x  h f  ω

0 (7)
where the primes denote the first derivative and χ, ξ, φ, and ψ are
  

yet to be determined functions of y and ω. Substituting the above

Likewise, at the free surfaces in the x direction (at x 0 and
x L) the normal and shear stresses must vanish. Because the
expansions for u and v into the wave equations (1) and (2), we
obtain the system of first-order ordinary differential equations
foam layers used in the experiments are long and slender, and
strong damping is observed at frequencies at or above the fre-
Xn An Xn (14)
quencies at which the lengths of waves in the foam are on the
order of the thickness of the foam, we do not impose boundary
conditions on the ends of the foam (at x 0 and L). This simpli- where the vector Xn is of the form
fication allows us to reasonably approximate the behavior of the
foam over most of the length of the beam and to obtain relatively
simple predictions of the effect of the foam on the vibration of Xn  φn φn ψn ψn χn χn ξn ξn

T
(15)
the system.
and the matrix An is given in Table 1. Next, we solve (14) subject
2.2.3 Approximate Solution Because closed-form to the boundary conditions (4)–(7) to obtain
solutions for (1)–(3) along with the boundary conditions (4)–(7)
are generally difficult to obtain, we seek approximate solutions
Xn Bn eΛn y cnVn (16)
to the coupled beam-foam problem. To this end, we expand the
deflection of the beam in terms of the eigenfunctions of an un-
damped beam as where Bn and Λn are, respectively, the matrices of eigenvectors
and eigenvalues obtained by diagonalizing An , and cn is a con-
∞
V x ω


∑ Vn ω



αn x

  βn x

  (8)
stant vector whose elements are determined by enforcing the
boundary conditions (4)–(7). Thus, having obtained the func-
tions χn , ξn , φn , and ψn , we compute the stresses σy x  0 and

n 1

τxy x  0 at the interface of the foam and the beam and substitute


where αn x and βn x are, respectively, the propagating and

  them into (3) to solve for Vn . In order to do so, we multiply (3)

by αn x βn x and integrate the resulting expression between

evanescent components of the eigenfunction. As an example, we   

find that αn x and βn x take the following form for a free-free

  0 and L to obtain a system of linear equations in Vn . The order



4 Copyright c 2003 by ASME

 Table 1. Form of the coefficient matrix An in (14)



0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0

ρω2 kn2 λ 2G λ G



G

 

0 0 0 0 

G kn


0 0

0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0

An

ρω2 kn2 λ 2G λ G
0 0 0 0 0 0 G kn

  

 

G

0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

λ G ρω2 kn2 G 

0 k
λ 2G n



0 0 0 

λ 2G 
0 0


0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

λ G ρω2 kn2 G
0 0 0 

k
λ 2G n



0 0 

λ 2G



Because the speed of sound and loss factor of the powder are
not precisely known, we detail in the Appendix a set of exper-
0.063 in iments to measure these properties. From these measurements,
0.125 in 0.8 in we find that the speed of sound does not vary very much with
the frequency and is approximately 58 m/s. Likewise, we find
 

that the loss factor also does not exhibit a strong dependence on
2 in 

1.125 in
frequency and is approximately 0.20.
(a) (b) In all of the experiments, the beam is suspended by soft
elastic strings to simulate free-free boundary conditions. An
Figure 5. Cross section of aluminum beams: (a) box beam with an over impulsive excitation is provided by an impact hammer (PCB
all length of 28.25 inches, and (b) U-Channel beam with an overall length 333A30 [17]) at one end of the beam, and the response is mea-
of 23.25 inches sured by an accelerometer (PCB 333A30 [17]) located at the
same end the beam.
The first set of flexural measurements were conducted on an
of this linear system is equal to the number of terms in the ex- aluminum box beam of length 717.55 mm and cross section as
pansion (8). Next, after computing the values of Vn , we write the sketched in Figure 6(a). The box beam is filled completely with
non-dimensional accelerance R at x x f as 3M Microbubbles and, due to the compressibility of the granu-
lar material, the beam is readily filled to an extent that no free
∞
R ∑
mω2V L mω2Vn L surface remains between the granular fill and the interior of the
αn x f βn x f

    (17) beam wall. The total mass of the particle fill is 16 per cent of that
F

n 0 F
of the beam.
Finally, we plot in Figure 4 the force-to-acceleration frequency In Figure 6, we plot the force-to-acceleration frequency re-
response and compare it with the measured response. We find sponse for the completely filled box beam along with that of
that there is good agreement between the measured and predicted the empty (unfilled) beam. As expected, the unfilled beam ex-
frequency responses. hibits very little damping, with ζ 0 002 for each of the first  

two modes. When the particles are added, we see a significant

increase in damping in these modes. The effect on the first mode
3 Damping using Low-Density Granular Media of the beam is more pronounced: A new mode has appeared,
leading to behavior much like that of a tuned-mass damper. The
3.1 Experiments critical damping ratios for the first three modes of the filled beam
In this section, we report on experiments conducted on the are found to be 0.04, 0.05, and 0.01, respectively.
two aluminum beams whose cross sections are shown in Fig- A second set of experiments were conducted on a U-channel
ure 5. The beams are filled with 3M Glass K1 Microbubbles (3M beam of length 590.55 mm with the cross section shown in Fig-
Corporation [21]). The average diameter of a particle is 65 mi- ure 5(b). In Figure 7, we compare the frequency response ob-
crons, and we measure the density of the powder to be 60 kg/m 3 . tained for the unfilled beam to that obtained for the beam filled


5 Copyright c 2003 by ASME

 80

Response Magnitude (dB) 60

40

20

−20

−40
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
Frequency (Hz)

Figure 4. Comparison of measured and predicted force-to-acceleration frequency responses: measured without foam (dotted), predicted without foam
(dash-dot), measured with foam (dashed), and predicted with foam (solid)

90 100

80
80
70

60
60
Magnitude (dB)

Magnitude (dB)

50

40 40

30
20
20

10 0
0

−10 −20
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz)

Figure 6. Measured force-to-acceleration frequency responses of the Figure 7. Measured force-to-acceleration frequency responses of the U-
rectangular box beam under hammer excitation: unfilled (dotted), filled channel beam under hammer excitation: unfilled (dotted), filled (solid)
(solid)

with a layer of powder 17 mm thick. The mass of granular fill consider a beam of length L, flexural stiffness EI, and mass per
is 9.6 per cent of that of the beam. As in the measurements on unit length m. A layer of granular material of thickness h and
the box beam, we find that the filled U-channel beam exhibits width b is coupled to the beam as shown in Figure 8. The beam
significant damping in each of its first two modes. In this case, is excited by a point-harmonic force at a frequency ω and dis-
the tuned-mass damper effect appears close to the second reso- tance x f from one end of the beam. We employ a simple Euler-
nance of the beam. The critical damping ratios for the first three Bernoulli model for the beam and consider the granular fill to be
modes of the filled beam are found to be 0.005, 0.05, and 0.06, a compressible inviscid fluid in which two-dimensional pressure
respectively. waves can propagate. While the mechanism of dissipation within
the granular material is not completely understood, we character-
ize it by a complex speed of sound c defined by
3.2 Model
In this section, we develop a model to predict the dynamics
of the powder-filled beams described in the previous section. We c c0 1  jηω 
ω
(18)


6 Copyright c 2003 by ASME

 3.2.2 Approximate Solution To obtain the force-to-
acceleration frequency response for the powder-filled beams, we
must simultaneously solve the wave equation (19) and the beam-
deflection equation (21) subject to the boundary conditions given
in (20). As in the case of foam (Section 2.2.3), we seek approx-
imate solutions to the coupled beam-powder problem. To this
end, we expand the deflection of the beam in terms of the eigen-
functions of an undamped beam as
x
∞
$L$
V x ω


∑ Vn ω



αn x

 
βn x

 
(22)

n 1
y

h
where αn x and βn x are respectively, the propagating and

z  

evanescent components of the eigenfunction. Next, we assume a

b compatible pressure distribution in the form

∞ ∞
Figure 8. Diagram showing the parameters used in the model: The
p x  y ω

∑ φn y  ω α n

x ∑ ψn y  ω β n

x (23)
beam has length L and is partially filled with granular material over a
     

n 1

n 1
width b and to a height h.

Substituting the above expression for p into the wave equation

where η is the loss factor of the granular material. (19) and using the boundary conditions in (20), we obtain the
following expressions for φn and ψn
3.2.1 Equations of Motion and Boundary Condi-
eλn1 y
eλn1 2h
tions Consider steady vibration of the powder-filled beam of
Figure 8 under harmonic excitation at a frequency ω by a point φn y  ω

ρω2Vn

 y 

(24)
force Re Fδ x
x f e jωt . We denote the vibratory deflection of λn1 1 e2λn1h


the beam under such an excitation by Re(V x  ω e jωt ) and the

 

eλn2 y
eλn2 2h

pressure in the granular material by Re(p x  y ω e jωt ). The pres-



ψn y  ω

ρω2Vn

 y 

(25)
λn2
sure p x  y ω in the granular material is governed by the follow-
1 e2λn2h


ing two-dimensional wave equation

where λ2n1 ω2  c2
kn2 and λ2n2 ω2  c2 kn2 , and kn is the
∂2 p ∂2 p ω2


p 0 (19) wave number of the nth mode of the undamped beam. Next,
∂x2 ∂y2 c2 we use the above expressions for φn and ψn to compute the pres-
 

sure p x  0  ω at the beam-powder interface and substitute it into

At the free surface (at y h), the pressure must vanish. At the


(21) to solve for Vn . In order to do so, we multiply (21) by

interface with the beam (at y 0), the pressure gradient ∂p  ∂y is αn x βn x and integrate the resulting expression between 0

  

proportional to the acceleration of the beam. Hence we have the and L to obtain a system of linear equations in Vn . The order of
boundary conditions this linear system is equal to the number of terms in the expan-
sion (22). After determining the values of the Vn , we compute
∂p the non-dimensional accelerance R at x x f according to
p x h ω x 0 ω ρω2V x  ω

0 and (20)
∂y
  

∞
R ∑
mω2V L mω2Vn L
where ρ is the density of the powder. As in the case of foam αn x f βn x f

   
(26)
(Section 2.2.1), we consider the force and moment balance on an F
F n 0
infinitesimal element of the beam to obtain the following equa-
tion governing the vibratory motion of the beam: Finally, we compare the predicted and the measured force-
to-acceleration frequency responses for the U-channel beam. As
EI
d 4V

mω2V
bp x  0  ω

Fδ x
x f

(21)
shown in Figure 9, the second resonance in the unfilled beam
dx4
 

occurs at a significantly lower frequency than predicted by the

Copyright c 2003 by ASME



7
 "!"! "!"! "!"! "!"!
120
    
accelerometer
"! "! #$ "! #$ "! #$ #$
acrylic tube

100
           "!"!  "!"! $#$#  "!"! $#$#  "!"! $#$#  $#$#             
plunger powder

            $#  $#  $#  $#             (' (' 
%&% %&%       $#  $#  $#  $#          + ,+  ,+  ,+ ,+ ('(' ,+ ('('
80

&&                   +)  +*),  +*),  +*), +, (' +, ('


Magnitude (dB)
60
40
20
0 plunger
−20
−40
0 200 400 600 800 1000
Frequency (Hz)
Figure 9. Comparison of measured and predicted force-to-acceleration
frequency responses of the U-channel beam under hammer excitation:
measured unfilled (dashed), predicted unfilled (dash-dot), measured filled
(solid), predicted filled (dotted)
Euler-Bernoulli beam model. This discrepancy arises from shear
deformation, which becomes important even in low-order modes
for such thin-walled beams but is not taken into account in the
beam model. Despite the simplicity of the beam model, we find
that the predicted damping is roughly in accordance with the
measurement, lending some confidence to our approach to the
modeling of the behavior of the powder.
4 Conclusions
The experimental results described in this paper show that
high damping can be attained with little added mass by coupling
a structure to a medium with a moderate loss factor, low density,
and low speed of sound. In all of these experiments, when the fre-
quencies of vibration are close to those at which standing waves
can be induced in the low density medium, the coupling to the vi-
brating structure becomes strong, resulting in significant damp-
ing. Such damping treatments (whether the low-density medium
is powder, foam, or some other material) offer a low cost method
of attaining broad-band damping in structures and machines.
We have developed simple models by which the damping in
a beam coupled to a low-density, low-wave-speed continuum can
be predicted. Approximate solutions are developed by expanding
the displacement of the beam in terms of its mode shapes, solv-
ing for compatible vibration in the foam or powder, and thence
computing the response of the combined system. The results are
found to be in close agreement with measured responses for the
foam-beam and foam-powder systems. Granular materials are
potentially more important than foam for a variety of applica-
tions. They are cheaper, easier to use in filling a structure, and
can be selected from a range of materials whose properties are
relatively independent of temperature.
                  )+  *),+  *),+  *),+ ,+ ,+  

)+)*),+) *),+) *),+) ,+ ,+ 

++*,++ *,++ *,++ ,++ ,++
+,,+ ,,+ ,,+ ,,+ ,,+
x
force transducer
1200 1400
Figure 10. Schematic of the experiment employed to determine the
properties of powder
5 Appendix
In this section, we document a set of experiments in which
we determine the speed of sound and loss factor of the gran-
ular medium employed in this paper. The experimental set up
consists of a powder-filled acrylic tube whose cross section is
shown schematically in Figure 10. At one end of the tube (at
x 0) a plunger is used to impose a displacement on the powder.
The plunger is driven using an electromagnetic shaker via an ac-
celerometer. At the other end of the tube (at x L), a plunger
is held against a rigid support by means of a force transducer to
simulate a fixed end. Next, by imposing a sinusoidal displace-
ment at the free end and varying its frequency, we obtain transfer
functions between the acceleration at the free end and the force at
the fixed end. Because of the free-fixed boundary conditions, we
expect resonances to occur in the acceleration-to-force transfer
function at frequencies where the length of the tube is an integer
multiple of half the wave length in the powder.
In Figure 11, we plot the measured acceleration-to-force
transfer function for a tube whose length and diameter are
254 mm and 22.8 mm, respectively. We find that the primary res-
onance occurs at 114 Hz and the resonance frequencies occur in
the ratio of 1:2.02:3.02:4.03, which is close to that expected from
theory. Based on the values of these resonance frequencies, we
compute the speed of sound in the powder to be approximately
58 m/s. Next, we obtain the loss factor for the various modes
in this transfer function using standard modal curve-fitting soft-
ware such as Star Modal (Spectral Dynamics [22]). We find that
the loss factor is independent of frequency and has a value of
approximately 0.20.
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