RESPONSE OF IMPACT DAMPERS WITH GRANULAR-MATERIALS UNDER RANDOM-EXCITATION

This paper presents the results of an experimental and analytical stud y of the performance of granular material dampers with tungsten powder , as an impacting mass, under wide-band random excitation. The influen ce of some of the major system parameters such as the total auxiliary mass ratio, container dimensions and intensity of the excitation are i nvestigated using a small building model under base excitation. An app roximate analytical solution based on the concept of an equivalent sin gle-unit impact damper is presented. Comparison between the experiment al and analytical results shows that, with the proper use of the equiv alent single-particle impact damper approach, reasonably accurate esti mates of the rms response of a primary system under stationary random excitation can be obtained.