Effect of Base Shape on Damping of Rocking of Rigid Body

Abstract

Effect of base shape on damping characteristics of rocking of rigid body is presented. We pay attention to the fact that free vibration amplitude of rigid body decreases rapidly without dampers or damping materials. We consider rocking of rigid body is very attractive as a low cost dynamic vibration absorber. At first, damping characteristics of rocking of typical rigid body with flat base shape is discussed theoretically. Next, we propose new type rigid body which base shape is polygon in order to design damping characteristics of rigid body in wide range. Theoretical method to calculate damping characteristics of rigid body is derived. Experiment of free vibration of the rigid body is carried out and the calculated results of the proposed method agree well with the experimental results. By calculating damping ratio of proposed rigid body using derived equations, it can be seen polygon base shape is very useful to design damping characteristics of rigid body.