An overview of constrained-layer damping theory and application

Abstract

Beginning in the early 1930s a variety of theoretical and experimental research has been published regarding the development and use of damping. What began as an experiment to reduce noise and vibration in metals and plastics has become a common treatment in an amalgam of applications. Constrained-layer damping (CLD) is a specific method of treatment commonly used in the aerospace and military industries. CLD may be described as a type of shear-related energy dissipation achieved by interconnecting two or more structural materials using a relatively thin viscoelastic layer. Among the advantages of using CLD as a damping treatment are the ability to obtain high loss factors with relatively thin configurations and that the stiffness of the composite system is not markedly increased. The analytic development of constrained-layer damping will be presented along with a brief discussion of the applications of CLD throughout history. © 2013 Acoustical Society of America.