Study of the effect of bolt diameter and washer on damping in layered and jointed structures

In the present work, the mechanism of damping in layered and jointed structures with connecting bolts and washers have been extensively studied. A lot of experiments have been conducted on a number of specimens with connecting bolts of various diameters to study its effect on the damping capacity of the layered and jointed structures and to establish the authenticity of the theory developed. Intensity of interface pressure, diameter of the connecting bolts, washers, number of layers, kinematic coefficient of friction at the interfaces and frequency and amplitude of excitation are found to play a major role on the damping capacity of such structures. It is established that the damping capacity of structures jointed with connecting bolts can be improved substantially by increasing the number of layers connected with bolts of smaller diameters along with use of washers.