Experimental and theorical investigation on energy dissipation capacity of the viscoelastic limb-like-structure devices

The bionics design method has been proverbially applied at vibration control field, and how to make bionic vibration control device possess excellent mechanical property and stable energy dissipation capacity is an important subject. In this paper, a bionic viscoelastic limb-like-structure (VE-LLS) device is proposed in conjunction with the viscoelastic (VE) damper and the limb-like-structure (LLS) device together, and the proposed device simultaneously possesses excellent mechanical propriety and energy dissipation capacity. Firstly, the mechanical property test of the VE-LLS device is conducted to investigate the effect of ambient temperature, excitation amplitude and frequency on its dynamic mechanical property and energy dissipation capacity. The energy dissipation contribution caused by the LLS joint friction for the VE-LLS device is discussed. Then, the energy dissipation model of the VE-LLS device is established by simultaneously considering the viscoelastic and friction factors, and the comparison result indicates that the established energy dissipation model can accurately describe the energy dissipation capacity of the VE-LLS device under different ambient temperature, exaction amplitude and frequency. Finally, to further promote the stability of energy dissipation capacity of the VE-LLS device at different temperature and frequency, an energy dissipation compensation strategy is proposed by increasing the energy dissipation of the LLS joint friction to compensate for the energy dissipation attenuation of the VE damper caused by high temperature and low frequency, and the results shows that the compensation strategy expresses excellent effect for the energy dissipation stability of the VE-LLS device. © 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC