Effect of phenyl content, sample thickness and compression on damping performances of silicone rubber: A study by dynamic mechanical analysis and impact damping test

The relaxation behaviors and impact damping effects of phenyl silicone rubber were investigated using dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and a home-designed impact damping test. The effects of rubber phenyl content, sample thickness and compression on the damping performance were evaluated. DMA results over a broad temperature and frequency range indicate that silicone rubber with higher phenyl content would overall exhibit better damping capacity owing to the increase in friction between molecular chains, and the impact damping performances agree well with the relaxation results. Besides, sample thickness and compression will also strongly influence the damping performances as directly evidenced by the impact damping tests. It is demonstrated that a combination of DMA and impact damping test is of critical use for designing rubber damping devices according to the frequency range of interest. This work will provide deeper insight into damping performances of rubbers and practical guidance for their engineering applications.