摘要: |
Impact dampers have been considered as energy dissipating mechanisms for many years, and many types have been introduced. The latest member of the impact damper family is called the linear particle chain (LPC) impact damper, which is considered as an extension to the commonly known single unit and multi-unit impact dampers. It consists of a linear arrangement of two sizes of freely moving masses, constrained by two stops, and located on a primary system to be controlled. In this work, the results of an experimental study of the performance of the LPC impact damper are presented. The first prototype of the LPC impact damper is designed, fabricated, and experimentally tested. The experiments are conducted to examine the efficiency of the LPC impact damper in damping the free vibrations of a simple structure. The damping performance of the LPC impact damper is compared with those of a single unit and multi-unit impact dampers. The experimental results clearly show the significant effect of the LPC impact damper in attenuating the structure's vibration. The investigations indicate that the damping performance of the LPC impact damper depends on the mass ratio of the impacting masses, the damper clearance, and the damper chain length. DOI: 10.106l/(ASCE)ST.1943-541X.0001638. © 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers. |