Feasibility research on coupled friction/piezoelectric dampers

A new passive damper coupling the energy dissipative mechanisms of dry friction and piezoelectric shunting circuit is proposed. The idea is to embed the shunted piezoelectric materials to the dry friction dampers at appropriate positions, so that the elastic deformation of the dry friction dampers can be utilized to generate additional damping. Moreover, this provides a more practical way to install the piezoelectric dampers into realistic mechanical systems such as aero-engines. A five Degree-of-freedom (DOFs) lumped system model is introduced to demonstrate the feasibility of such an idea. The damping performance is revealed using the forced response results obtained by the Multi Harmonic Balance Method (MHBM). We show that the coupled damper significantly outperforms the standalone piezoelectric or dry friction dampers. The coupled damper is better than, at least equivalent to, the case where both piezoelectric and dry friction dampers are applied but in uncoupled manner. Eventually, the mechanism of the proposed damper is further explained from the perspective of vibrational mode and energy conversion.