Investigation of the Dynamic Properties of Viscoelastic Dampers with Three-Chain Micromolecular Configurations and Tube Constraint Effects

Molecular chain structures have important impacts on the damping performance of viscoelastic materials/dampers. In the present work, a microstructure mathematical model of viscoelastic dampers is proposed that relies on statistical theory and the microscopic molecular configurations of materials. The three-chain model and Doi–Edwards model are employed to describe the molecular configurations and the tube constraint effects from ambient molecular chains. The influence of temperature variation is portrayed by the temperature–frequency equivalent principle. Sinusoidal force–displacement hysteresis tests are carried out on damper samples with different temperatures, frequencies, and displacement amplitudes, and the experimental data are compared with data from model calculations. This demonstrates that the viscoelastic dampers have excellent stiffness and damping properties, especially at low temperatures and high frequencies. The proposed microstructure mathematical model can perfectly depict the dynamic characteristics of viscoelastic materials/dampers under different test conditions, and the relationship between the macro damping performance of dampers and the microstructures of viscoelastic materials is established well.