J. Eng. Technol. Educ.

(2013) 10(2): 221-228 J une 2013

Journal of Engineering Technology and Education, ISSN 1813-3851
Damping Characteristics Analysis of Rectangular Plate with
Magnetorheological Elastomer Core Treatments

Jia-Yi Yeh*
Department of Information Management,
Chung Hwa University of Medical Technology, Tainan, Taiwan
*E-mail: yeh@mail.hwai.edu.tw

Abstract
The damping characteristics analysis of rectangular plate with magnetorheological (MR) elastomer core
treatment is studied in this investigation. The rectangular plate is subjected with a magnetorheological elastomer
core layer to improve and control the damping behaviors of the sandwich rectangular plate system. The MR
elastomer shows variations in the rheological properties when subjected with varying magnetic fields. Besides,
MR material exhibits rapid time response and is applicable to the structures or devices. The MR elastomer is
found to have a significant effect on damping characteristics of the sandwich rectangular plate. The modal
dampers for the sandwich rectangular plate system are calculated for various magnetic fields. The damping
effects of the sandwich plate system can be controlled and changed when the different magnetic fields are applied.

Keywords: damping; rectangular plate, magnetorheological; elastomer; finite element method.

1. Introduction
In recent years, the plate structures have received s great deal of attention because of the wide applications in
many mechanical systems. Earlier analytical works on sandwich plate with constraining layer damping treatment
can be traced back to Ross et al. [1]. The theory of the vibration bending for viscoelastic layered beam structures
was presented by DiTatanto [2]. Then, Mead and Markus [3] calculated the forced vibrations of three-layer
damped sandwich beam system with various boundary conditions. The analysis of sandwich constructions by
finite element modeling was obtained by OConner [4]. Then, the Ritz method was utilized by Kanematsu et al.
[5] to investigate the bending and vibration of rectangular sandwich plates and also conducted experiments to
obtain the deflection and vibrational modes. Kung and Singh [6] showed the numerical results of the complex
eigensolutions of rectangular plates with damping patches and studied new analytical, energy based approach that
predicts the vibration characteristics of rectangular plates with multiple viscoelastic patches is presented.
The magnetorheological (MR) materials have great potential in applications for smart materials and structures.
The effects of the MR materials were first discovered by Rabinow [7] and the MR material had rapid change in
their rheological properties and thus in the damping and stiffness properties with the applications of the magnetic
fields [8]. Shiga et al. [9] studied the magnetoviscoelastic behaviors of composite gels. Then, the
magnetoviscoelastic response of the elastomer composites consisting of ferrous particles embedded in a polymer
matrix was obtained by J olly et al. [10]. The applications for the construction of smart components had been
previously presented by Yalcintas and Dai [11]. The Filed dependence of viscoelastic properties of
magnetorheological elastomers was investigated and discussed by Bellan and Bossis [12]. Sun et al. [13]
developed the analytical model for the case of sandwich beam structure with MR core layer based on the
Jia-Yi Yeh

222
Hamiltons principle and calculated the numerical results with simply-supported boundary condition. The study
on the adjustable rigidity of magnetorheological-elastomer-based sandwich beams was presented by Zhou and
Wang [14]. Recently, the dynamic analysis of magnetorheological elastomer-based sandwich beam with
conductive skins under various boundary conditions was studied and discussed by Nayak et al. [15]

2. Numerical and Calculation Model
The configuration of the sandwich rectangular plate with MR elastomer core layer and constraining layer is
shown in the Figure 1. Before the derivation proceeds, the assumptions used in this derivation must be
mentioned:
(1) No slipping between the elastic and MR elastomer layers is assumed.
(2) The transverse displacements for every point on a cross-section are the same.
(3) There exists no normal stress in the MR elastomer layer, and there exists no shear strain in the elastic layer
either.


Figure 1. The sandwich rectangular plate system with MR elastomer damping treatment.

The strain-displacement relation of the elastic layer can be expressed as follows:

(
(
(
(

c
c
c
c
c
c
c
c
=
)
`

w
v
u
y
z
y
x
z
x
i
i
i
i
yi
xi
2
2
2
2
0
0
c
c
i=1,3 (1)

in which,
i
u ,
i
v ,
xi
c , yi
c
and
i
z are the axial displacements, bending strains of the mid-plane of layer i at the
x- and y-directions and the distance of the mid-height of layer i, respectively.

Damping Characteristics Analysis of Rectangular Plate with Magnetorheological Elastomer Core Treatments 223
(a) xz-plane (b) yz plane
Figure 2. Undeformed and deformed configurations of the sandwich rectangular plate.

The shear strains of the MR elastomer core layer can be written as follows by considering the geometry of the
sandwich plate system as shown in Figure 2:

(
(
(
(

c
c
c
c
c
c
c
c
=
)
`

w
v
u
y z
x z
y
x
2
2
2
2
0
0

. (2)

Then, by referring to the geometric relationship between
i
u ,
i
v ,
xi
c , yi
c
and z w c c of the elastic layers
1 and 3, the displacement relations of the MR elastomer core layer are:

(
(
(
(

+
c
c +
+
c
c +
=

c
c
c
c
) (
2
) (
) (
2
) (
1
3 1
3 1
3 1
3 1
2
2
2
v v
y
w h h
u u
x
w h h
h
z
v
z
u
. (3)

The following shear strain in the MR elastomer core layer can be rewritten as follows by substituting the
above equations into Eqs.(2):

(
(
(

+
c
c

+
c
c
=
)
`

d
v v
x
w
d
u u
x
w
h
d
y
x
3 1
3 1
2 2
2

, where ) 2 (
2
1
3 2 1
h h h d + + = (4)

Then, the strain energy associated with the normal strain in the elastic layer can be obtained:

dA D V
yi
A
xi i i
) (
2
1
2 2
c c
}
+ =
i=1, 3. (5)

in which,
i
D is the differential operator matrix and listed in the appendix in detail. Besides, the strain energy
Jia-Yi Yeh

224
of the MR elastomer core layer is obtained as follows:

}
+ =
A
y x
dA G V ) (
2
1
2
2
2
2
*
2

, (6)

where
*
G
denotes the complex shear modulus of the MR elastomer core layer. Let
V
be the total strain
energy of the sandwich plate, and the following equation can be obtained:

2
V V V
i
+ = , i=1, 3.. (7)

In addition, the kinetic energy of the sandwich plate is

dA v u h v u h T
A
)] ( ) ( [
2
1
2
3
2
3 3 3
2
1
2
1 1 1
+ + + =
}

+
dA h h h
A
) (
2
1
3 3 2 2 1 1
+ +
}
+
}
+
A
y x
dA I ) (
2
1
2
2
2
2 2

. (8)

The adopted plate elements are two-dimensional element bounded by four nodal points. Each node of the
element has seven degrees of freedom to describe the longitudinal displacements, transverse displacements, and
slopes of the sandwich plate. The transverse displacement, longitudinal displacement can be expressed in terms
of a nodal displacement vector and a shape function vector:

) ( ) , ( ) , , ( t q y x N t y x w
w
= , ) ( ) , ( ) , , ( t q y x N t y x u
ui i
= , ) ( ) , ( ) , , ( t q y x N t y x v
vi i
= , i=1,3. (9a, b, c)

where
T
yi xi i i i i i
w w w v u v u t q ] , , , , , , [ ) (
, , 3 3 1 1
=
for , 4 , 3 , 2 , 1 = i ) , ( y x N
w
, ) , ( y x N
ui
, and ) , ( y x N
vi
are the shape
functions of the plate element.
The Hamiltons principle is used and as follows to obtain the equation of motion of the sandwich plates:

}
=
2
1
0 ) (
t
t
dt V T o . (10)

Then, the strain energy and kinetic energy derived in the above section can be rewritten in terms of nodal
displacement variables as follows:

)} ( ]{ [ )} ( {
2
1
t q K t q V
e T
= , )} ( ]{ [ )} ( {
2
1
t q M t q T
e T
= (11a, b)

where ] [
e
K and ] [
e
M are the stiffness and kinetic matrix of the sandwich plate element, respectively.
The governing equation for the sandwich plate element is obtained as follows by substituting the strain
energy and kinetic energy into the Hamiltons principle:

} 0 { )} ( ]{ ([ )} ( ]{ [ = + t q K t q M
e e
. (12)

Damping Characteristics Analysis of Rectangular Plate with Magnetorheological Elastomer Core Treatments 225
The global dynamic equation of the sandwich plate with MR elastomer core layer and constraining layer can
be expressed as by assembling the contributions of all elements

} 0 { )} ( ]{ ([ )} ( ]{ [ = + t q K t q M . (13)

Then, the complex eigenvalues

~
of the above complex eigenvalue problems can be found numerically. The
modal loss factor
v
q are extracted in the following equations:

)
~
Re(
)
~
Im(

q =
v (14a, b)

4. Numerical and experimental results and discussions
In order to validate the proposed algorithm and calculations, the comparisons between the present results and
the results of the references are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Comparisons of results obtained by Rajamohan et al. [16] with those obtained in present methods.
Natural frequency (Hz)
Rajamohan et al. [19] Magnetic field (B)
Present
FEM RITZ method
0 15.88 15.88 14.79
75 17.15 17.06 16.26
175 18.20 18.16 17.72
400 19.48 19.56 19.71
500 19.72 19.89 20.20

The elements used in present program are 12x10 in x- and y- directions and the boundary condition is
simply-supported at four edges. Based on the existing results of the MR material, only the magnetic field
dependence of the MR material in the pre-yield regime needs to be considered. The complex shear modulus of
the MR elastomer used in this study was estimated by performing a free oscillation experimental on the fully
treatment MR sandwich system [16]. The complex shear modulus of the MR elastomer can be expressed as the
following function with respect to the intensity of magnetic field:

) ( ) ( ) (
*
B G j B G B G ' ' + ' = , (15)

where the storage modulus 873000 5 . 4997 3691 . 3 ) (
2 '
+ + = B B B G , the loss modulus
185500 4 . 812 9 . 0 ) (
2 ' '
+ + = B B B G , B is the intensity of magnetic field in Gauss, and the mass density of the
MR elastomer core layer is
3
/ 3500 m kg . Afterward, the following non-dimensional parameters and some
geometrical parameters are introduced for convenience:
m a 3 . 0 =
,
m b 2 . 0 =
, GPa E E 70
3 1
= = , 3 . 0
3 1
= =u u ,
3
3 1
/ 2700 m kg = = ,
3
2
/ 3500 m kg = , mm h 25 . 1
3
= ,
Jia-Yi Yeh

226
3 2 2
~
h h h = ,
3 1 1
~
h h h = .
The variations of the sandwich plate system on modal loss factor for various magnetic fields are shown in
Figure 3. The analysis condition of the parameters are
3 . 0
~
1
= h
and
5 . 0
~
2
= h
. The modal loss factor will be
smaller as the applying magnetic filed is stronger. It is because that the stronger intensity of magnetic field will
increase the stiffness of the sandwich plate system and also decrease the damping effect of the sandwich plate
system. Besides, the tendency is similar for various modes on modal loss factor according to the figures.
Figure 4 shows the effects of magnetic fields on modal loss factor of the sandwich plate system for various
modes. And, the analysis condition of the parameters are
3 . 0
~
1
= h
and
5 . 0
~
2
= h
. The numerical results can be
observed that the modal loss factor increases at first and decreases at specific value with the increasing of the
magnetic fields. Thus, a maximum value of the modal loss factor will appear in the figure. Besides, the modal
loss factor will be smaller with larger modes of the sandwich plate system from the above figures.

0 1 2 3 4 5
mode number
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
0.06
0.07
m
o
d
a
l

l
o
s
s

f
a
c
t
o
r
0 G
100 G
200 G
400 G

Figure 3. Variations of the sandwich plate system on modal loss factor for various magnetic fields.

Damping Characteristics Analysis of Rectangular Plate with Magnetorheological Elastomer Core Treatments 227
0 200 400 600 800
magnetic field (B)
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
0.06
0.07
m
o
d
a
l

l
o
s
s

f
a
c
t
o
r
Mode 1
Mode 2
Mode 3
Mode 4

Figure 4. The effects of magnetic fields on modal loss factor of the sandwich plate system for various modes.

Figure 5 presents the effects of magnetic fields on modal loss factor of the sandwich plate system for various
thickness of MR elastomer core layer. The analysis condition of the parameter is
3 . 0
~
1
= h
. As the applying
magnetic field increases, the variations of the modal loss factor are similar as the results in Figure 4. In addition,
the results for different thickness of MR elastomer core layer are also plotted in figures. According to the results,
it shows that the larger thickness of MR elastomer core layer, the larger modal loss factor of the sandwich plate
system.
0 200 400 600 800
magnetic field (B)
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.1
m
o
d
a
l

l
o
s
s

f
a
c
t
o
r
~
~
~
h
2
=0.5
h
2
=0.8
h
2
=1.0

Figure 5. The effects of magnetic fields on modal loss factor of the sandwich plate system for thickness of MR
elastomer core layer.

Jia-Yi Yeh

228
5. Conclusions
In this study, the damping characteristics analysis of sandwich rectangular plate with MR elastomer core
treatment is presented. The finite element method is utilized to calculate the modal loss factor. Additionally, a
complex description of the viscoelastic material is adopted for the MR elastomer in this investigation. The
following conclusions can be obtained according to the numerical results. It shows that the magnetic field will
change the stiffness of the sandwich rectangular plate. Thus, the modal loss factors are controllable when
applying different intensity of magnetic fields. The increasing of the thickness of the MR elastomer core layer
will also change the stiffness of the sandwich plate system. So, the modal loss factor can be controllable through
the change of the thickness of the MR elastomer core layer. The viscoelastic characteristics of the MR elastomer
can be changed by applying different magnetic fields. Thus, it shows to have significant effects on the vibration
behaviors of the sandwich plate system.

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