Abstract
The purpose of this study is to propose a magnetic technique for damping characteristic improvement of structures packed with balls. First, the damping characteristics of structures packed with magnetic balls are experimentally investigated. The effect of the packing ratio on damping characteristics is then examined. The damping characteristics of these structures are affected by the magnetic force among the packed balls themselves, and between the packed balls and the structure. Second, the structures are packed with non-magnetic steel balls and a permanent magnet source is put outside the structures. Next, we examine the effect of the distance between the permanent magnetic source and structure, that is the intensity of the magnetic force, on the damping characteristics. In both types of structures, it is considered that the effective damping capacity improvement is achieved by the magnetic force among packed balls and between packed balls and structures.
