Integration of particle dampers with additive manufacturing for sustainable aviation

Additive manufacturing, particularly laser powder bed fusion technology, can be utilized to strategically leave powder unfused in certain cavities of a printed structure. The particles in these cavities dissipate the kinetic energy through impact and friction leading enhanced dampening performance. Furthermore, particle dampers integrated with additive manufacturing contribute to sustainable aviation goals due to their lightweight, cost-effective construction, and minimal integrity risks. Although additively fabricated particle dampers are favorable, determining the optimal design parameters requires a deep understanding of the design process. For instance, the damping characteristic of particle dampers is extremely sensitive to the boundary conditions of the main body. Therefore, this study examines the effects of boundary conditions on the particle damping using experimental methods. To this end, six different test specimens with particle dampers and a full-fused solid beam made of In718 were employed and the dampening performance was determined by performing modal testing by impulse excitation under clamped-free and free-free boundary conditions. The results confirmed that the damping characteristic of the particle dampers were significantly influenced by the imposed boundary conditions. Besides, particle-filled cavities provide considerably better damping compared to the solid beam with limited shift in natural frequencies and significant mass reduction. These findings can be used to optimize particle damper designs for a variety of aviation applications in terms of sustainability.