Abstract
An Elastic wedge is a plate whose thickness decreases smoothly to zero. Several authors presented results on Elastic wedges as new passive method for damping of structural vibrations. They proved that vibration energy in Elastic wedges accumulates in the thin edge theoretically and experimentally. As a result, small amounts of damping material added to that edge are enough to dissipate large amount of energy. Previous papers showed experimental results using a second-power law function for the thickness variation. This paper farther investigated the efficiency of Elastic wedges and presents experimental results using first (linear), second and third power laws. Experiments were carried out by inputting a vibration signal in the wedges and measuring accelerations at a number of locations. Then, the response of each Elastic wedge was evaluated with and without damping material. The results showed that all these Elastic wedges can achieve important damping levels, most especially at high frequency ranges.
