Optimal sandwich beam design for maximum viscoelastic damping (Q1089191)

Three-layer sandwich beams, made of two elastic outer layers and a viscoelastic layer sandwiched between them, are considered as damping structural elements. A sixth-order equation of motion with complex coefficients of a sandwich beam in free vibrations is reviewed and solved numerically for a large variety of boundary conditions. The solution is used later as part of an optimal design program. An equality constrained minimization algorithm is modified and used to obtain optimal design of damping sandwich beams subjected to inequality design constraints. The use of the program is demonstrated by solving two design problems.