Evaluation of the dynamic properties of PVC foams under flexural vibrations

The paper presents an investigation of the damping of PVC foams under flexural vibrations of clamped-free beams. The PVC foams are constrained by two aluminium beams and different densities of the PVC foams are studied. An experimental investigation is implemented using an impulse technique. The natural frequencies and the damping of the beams are modelled by using a finite element analysis based on the sandwich theory. Next, the numerical and experimental results are used to derive the shear modulus and the damping of PVC foams as functions of the frequency. Finally, the experimental investigation and the developed modelling show how the damping of aluminium-foam beams must be corrected to estimate the damping of PVC foams. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.