Proposal Number: CMS- 0347604 Principal Investigator: Nikhil A. Koratkar Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th Street, Troy, NY- 12180.
The goal of this project is to develop a new class of nanostructured damping materials to overcome the limitations of traditional viscoelastic polymers. More specifically, the technical objectives are: a) synthesize novel carbon nanotube architectures to study the fundamental mechanisms for interfacial friction damping in nanotube systems, b) characterize the effect of nanotube film morphology on the damping and stiffness response, c) study sensitivity of damping to environmental and operating conditions, and d) develop and experimentally validate the design tools needed to predict system level damping behavior as a function of nanotube film morphology and operating conditions. Structural damping is required to ensure stability and low vibratory loads in a variety of dynamic components. The outcome of this research will benefit the performance, cost, safety and reliability of a range of structural systems. This project will also have a strong educational impact since it demonstrates the exciting possibilities that exist for directed assembly of nanoscale building blocks to create new functional materials that have vastly superior properties compared with traditional systems.
