ANALYTICAL INVESTIGATION OF DAMPING ENHANCEMENT USING ACTIVE AND PASSIVE STRUCTURAL JOINTS

The low inherent damping of large space structures has prompted considerable research into active and passive damping augmentation. This paper discusses the development and analysis of improved joints for large space structures. These joints are able to give space structures higher levels of passive damping without significantly increasing the structure's weight or complexity. Two types of joint designs will be considered: passive joints and active joints. In each case, the force normal to a frictional interface is varied yielding a connecting joint with increased damping performance. A single-degree-of-freedom joint and a system consisting of two elastic beams connected by a single active/passive joint are considered. It is shown that these new types of joints enhance the energy dissipation from interconnected flexible structures in a relatively simple and robust way. Numerical simulation results are presented and discussed.