Structural assemblies incorporating negative stiffness elements have been shown to provide both tunable damping properties and simultaneous high stiffness and damping over prescribed displacement regions. In this paper we explore the design space for negative stiffness based assemblies using analytical modeling combined with finite element analysis. A simplified spring model demonstrates the effects of element stiffness, geometry, and preloads on the damping and stiffness performance. Simplified analytical models were validated for realistic structural implementations through finite element analysis. A series of complementary experiments was conducted to compare with modeling and determine the effects of each element on the system response. The measured damping performance follows the theoretical predictions obtained by analytical modeling. We applied these concepts to a novel sandwich core structure that exhibited combined stiffness and damping properties 8 times greater than existing foam core technologies.

Date Published: 1 April 2014
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 9057, Active and Passive Smart Structures and Integrated Systems 2014, 905723 (1 April 2014); doi: 10.1117/12.2051036

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9057:
Active and Passive Smart Structures and Integrated Systems 2014
Wei-Hsin Liao, Editor(s)