A simple predictive method for evaluating damping from thin viscoelastic layers in structures

This work presents a simple approach based on a three-spring model and the modal strain energy method for predicting the dissipative influence of thin viscoelastic layers on the vibration properties of structures. The approach estimates the ratio of strain energy in the viscoelastic component to the overall structure without explicitly modelling the layer. This involves identifying the sensitivity of the structure to stiffness changes of the layer and fitting an equivalent metamodel constructed from series and parallel springs. By making use of the elastic-viscoelastic correspondence principle, the damping of the system for any set of viscoelastic properties can then be obtained easily.