Retro-fit particle dampers for panels in space structures

The presented paper explores the use of discrete particle dampers (PDs) as a retro-fit solution for vibration control of structural panels in space structures. The damper enables the user to change the structures overall dynamical characteristics thanks to their inherent many tuning parameters such as particle volume fraction, individual particle size, and overall mass. damper can provide broadband control and can operate at a range of amplitudes and within a range of severe environments. Random and sine vibrations of varying amplitudes, up to 1kHz, are applied to investigate the change in resonant and damping behaviour from the PDs for both bending and torsion modes. A finite element model (FEM) was then used to determine the estimated damping through a first order Modal Kinetic Energy method. The experimental and FEM results were found to satisfactorily agree with each other. It was found that optimised PDs can contribute high levels of energy dissipation with damping ratios up to 10%. At the same time, providing an acceptable mass contribution making them not only an acceptable candidate for space structures, but also a retrofittable option with minimal re-qualification by test.