An assessment of a fractional derivative model applied to simulate the dynamic behavior of viscoelastic sandwich beam

Abstract

Viscoelastic materials can dissipate a large amount of energy when subjected to cyclic shear deformations. However, they have low bearing capacity. Therefore, they are often employed as damping layer in sandwich structures. These sandwich structures present a high damping ratio and simple application. In order to design sandwich structures, many aspects ranging from computer modelling to laboratory testing should be considered. In this paper, results from a test set of experiments are compared with a numerical fractional derivative based model, in order to establish a method to support viscoelastic sandwich beams design. In this way, starting from the dynamic properties of a viscoelastic material, a numerical model is used to evaluate the behavior of these structures. Comparisons with uncontrolled structures are also presented, showing the dissipative characteristics of this passive control.