Damping control in viscoelastic beam dynamics

Viscoelasticity plays a key role in many practical applications and in different research fields, such as in seals, sliding-rolling contacts, and crack propagation. In all these contexts, a proper knowledge of the viscoelastic modulus is very important. However, experimental characterization of the frequency-dependent modulus, carried out through different standard procedures, still presents some complexities; then possible alternative approaches are desirable. For example, experimental investigation of viscoelastic beam dynamics would be challenging, especially for the intrinsic simplicity of this kind of test. This is why a deep understanding of damping mechanisms in viscoelastic beams is found to be a quite important task to better predict their dynamics. With the aim to enlighten damping properties in such structures, an analytical study of the transversal vibrations of a viscoelastic beam is presented in this article. Some dimensionless parameters are defined, depending on the material properties and the beam geometry, which enable to accurately design the beam dynamics. In this way, by properly tuning such disclosed parameters, for example the dimensionless beam length or a chosen material, it is possible to enhance or suppress some resonant peaks, one at a time or more simultaneously. This is a remarkable possibility to efficiently control damping in these structures, and the results presented in this article may help in elucidating experimental procedures for the characterization of viscoelastic materials.