Investigation of different types of damping effects for automotive components –preliminary work

Abstract Automotive components are excited dynamically by interior (engine, gear system) and exterior effects (rough street surfaces, aerodynamics). This leads to dynamically induced vibrations which can end in fatigue cracking of components and/or undesirable acoustic emissions. With recent trends in optimizing/minimizing mass of vehicles, vibration problems are becoming an even more pronounced problem. In this research, a way has been investigated to reduce structural vibrations for a simple aluminium cantilever beam object, which is deduced from a cantilever beam of an automotive engine-transmission system. For this academic example the vibration has been reduced by attaching friction strips. The goal is to minimize the overall mass of the structure (cantilever beam plus friction strips) and simultaneously control the vibration amplitude. The energy lost due to the friction between the friction strips and the body of the vibrating beam will reduce the overall mechanical energy of the vibrating system and hence the vibrations will be controlled.