An Acceleration Damper: Development, Design, and Some Applications

Abstract An acceleration damper is essentially an impact damper, consisting of a mass particle within a container such that the particle has specified freedom to move relative to the container. The efficiency of the damper depends critically on the freedom of the particle relative to its container. The energy of the mass particle, which is energized by its container, is dissipated in impact. The mechanism and theory of the acceleration damper are discussed and developed in this paper. The theory yields formulas from which the acceleration damper can be designed efficiently for specific application. Theory and procedure for calculating the motion of a mechanical system, as influenced by a given acceleration damper, are developed. Tests were conducted and the agreement between theory and experiment is found to be good. These results show that friction forces acting on the mass particle are detrimental to the efficiency of the damper. Finally, a method for calculating the effect of the acceleration damper on flutter is also developed, which is accompanied by numerical results related to an actual airplane. It is indicated that the acceleration damper may have fundamental and numerous applications, some of which are fatigue, helicopter vibration control, aircraft vibration control in general, and to facilitate flight testing for flutter without endangering aircraft.