Development of a system for measuring structural damping coefficients

Abstract

A simple and accurate system to measure structural damping coefficients was investigated. Measurement requirements were derived after studying airflow damping and energy dissipation at supporting points. Structural damping coefficient was measured using lasor doppler vibrometer and FFT analyzer. As a result of measurement, the measurement system was validated for measuring structural damping coefficient. However, the system was uneconomical because of the high cost. So a new system was developed using a microphone as a vibration sensor and a personal computer for signal processing. Compared with the previous system, it was only about 1/10 the cost of previous system, almost the same measurement accuracy was obtained, and measuring time was reduced to less than 1/10 that of the previous system. From these results, the new measurement system was validated for simple and accurate measuring of structural damping coefficients.