Analysis of an experimental setup for structural damping identification

In the present paper, an experimental setup for structural damping determination arising from energy dissipations within the material is presented. The experimental setup is developed in such a way that all unintended damping sources are eliminated. In this connection, priority is also given to the reproducibility of the experimental data. In addition, a vacuum chamber is developed to reduce the damping arising from the interaction with the surrounding medium. Furthermore, beam-shaped specimens are clamped in a suspended way, using screws with an apex to fix the specimens in their nodes of vibration. Then, the influence of test rig specific parameters on the damping value is analyzed. In this context, an ideal setup of the test rig is identified to measure structural damping values arising from dissipations within the material. Finally, a common model for material damping description is parameterized using the experimental data.