Study of Smart Friction Damper Based on Smart Micro-Drive Actuator

As possessing character of simple structure, easy installation and steady performance, friction damper has been widely used in different fields. However, due to can not change its performance during utilization, traditional friction damper only has limited control effect to vibration of structures. Piezoelectric material and magnetostrictive material are two kinds of smart materials with ability of extending their length under excitation of electric or magnetic field respectively. Utilizing actuator made with above two kinds of smart materials to adjust normal pressure of friction damper, then to change friction force, is a good method to make friction damper to be adjustable during application. In this paper, three smart friction dampers were fabricated. The dampers have same structural parameter and their damping force can be respectively adjusted by the actuator which is made with Terfenol-D metal, polymer-bonded Terfenol-D composite and piezoelectric ceramic. Damping force and response time of the above dampers were tested. Experimental results show that, the friction damper based on Terfenol-D metal (GMM friction damper) possesses largest adjustable force and adjustable rate, the adjustable force and adjustable rate of friction damper based on polymer-bonded Terfenol-D composites (GMPC friction damper) is slightly less than that of GMM friction damper, the friction damper based on piezoelectric (PZT friction damper) possesses lowest adjustable force and adjustable rate. Experimental results also show that, the response time of GMM friction damper and PZT friction damper are close to 60–80ms and 30ms respectively.