Investigating Damping Performance of Laser Powder Bed Fused Components With Unique Internal Structures

An additive manufacturing (AM) process has been used to fabricate beam components with unique internal geometries capable of reducing weight and inherently suppressing vibration of the structure. Using the laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) AM process, four unique designs are investigated to quantify and understand the damping effectiveness of this manufacturing concept. Forced-response tests are conducted to validate the damping capability of each internal design configuration. The effects of external geometry, thermal distribution associated with internal friction, strain amplitude, and loading rate dependence on damping performance are studied. The results of the studied beams are compared to the damping performance of a fully-fused, or solid baseline LPBF beam. With only 1–4% internal beam volume alteration, the four unique beams are capable of providing up to ten times damping into their respective systems compared to the baseline, solid beam. From the studies of different parameter effects on damping, the main mechanism for vibration suppression is identified. Validation of the vibration suppression physics allows for internal feature optimization via LPBF that can maximize damping effectiveness.