A design of active constrained layer damping treatment for vibration control of circular cylindrical shell structure

A new 1-3 viscoelastic composite material (VECM) layer is designed for improved active constrained layer damping (ACLD) treatment of vibration of a functionally graded (FG) circular cylindrical shell. Besides this improved active damping treatment, another objective of this study is to control all the modes of vibration of the shell effectively using the treatment (active constrained layer damping) in layer-form throughout the outer shell-surface. In this design of active constrained layer damping treatment in layer-form, its (active constrained layer damping) necessary conformability with the curved host shell-surface is ensured by the use of a vertically reinforced 1-3 piezoelectric composite (PZC) constraining layer, whereas the effective control of several modes of vibration of the shell is achieved by the use of electrode-patches over the surfaces of the constraining layer. A fruitful strategy in the arrangement of electrode-patches is proposed for effective control of several modes of vibration of the shell using one configuration of the electrode-patches. An electric potential function is assumed for this use of electrode-patches and a geometrically nonlinear coupled electro-visco-elastic incremental finite element model of the overall shell is developed for its analysis in the frequency-domain. The analysis reveals significant improvement of active damping characteristics of the active constrained layer damping layer for the use of the present 1-3 viscoelastic composite material layer instead of the traditional monolithic viscoelastic material (VEM) layer. The analysis also reveals the suitability of the present strategy of arrangement of electrode-patches for achieving aforesaid control-activity of the ACLD layer. The effects of temperature in the host functionally graded shell and different geometric parameters in the design of the 1-3 viscoelastic composite material layer on the damping characteristics of overall shell are also presented.