Date of Award

Fall 1990

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Program/Concentration

Engineering Mechanics

Committee Director

Thomas E. Alberts

Committee Member

Jen-Kuang Huang

Committee Member

Chuh Mei

Call Number for Print

Special Collections; LD4331.E57R46

Abstract

The advent of new technology has led to an increasing number of missions in space. The space shuttle Remote Manipulator System (RMS) is a lightweight flexible manipulator currently used in NASA space missions. The future role of the RMS and similar flexible manipulators may include in-space construction and assembly tasks. Because these tasks require precise motion and short settling time of the end-point oscillations, effective vibration control schemes are being investigated.

Passive damping techniques have shown to provide a considerable amount of damping in controlling flexural vibrations. In this research passive damping via constrained viscoelastic damping treatments is explored as a means of controlling torsional vibrations. Equations have been derived to determine the optimum constraining layer section length and to predict the corresponding damping.

Based on mathematical models analytical transfer functions are derived for possible experimental test configurations. For this research a system with fixed-free boundary conditions was chosen. Simulations from these transfer functions agreed well with experimental results. From the derived equations for the constraining layer section length, a damping treatment for an aluminum test specimen and a composite test specimen is designed. Experimental results yield small percent error, less than three percent, when compared to the predicted values for damping.

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DOI

10.25777/7k4w-sp93

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