Optimised location and orientation of passive viscoelastic dampers for lightweight sandwich structures

Abstract

The recently developed Double Shear Lap-Joint (DSLJ) damper technology is a new device which can be placed internally within lightweight structures. This work considers the optimal location and orientation of DSLJ dampers within a simplified honeycomb sandwich structure, as an example of a lightweight structure subject to vibration, under typical idealised boundary conditions. The Pareto Archived Evolutionary Strategy was used as a multi-objective algorithm to maximise the modal loss factor whilst minimising the additional mass of the DSLJ inserts. Optimal configurations of DSLJ insert arrays within the sandwich core were identified for several of the dominant vibration modes.