Experimental investigation of bi-modular material coating to enhance damping

Abstract

Hard coatings can be used to increase damping when applied on the surface of the components of turbomachinery. This can be effective to reduce the resonant vibration level of components working in a high cycle fatigue environment due to the extremely high operational speed. This paper discusses the experimental investigation of a bi-modular material hard coating to enhance damping in structural steel elements. Firstly, a hard coating (Al2O3+MgO) is applied on AISI 304L stainless steel substrate by plasma spraying. After that, a layer of chrome is deposited by chrome plating. Dynamic responses of both coated and uncoated samples are measured. The damping ratio of the test specimen is extracted from the time response by the logarithmic decrement method. Improved damping capacity of the coated steel sample is observed and is mainly attributed to the thin coating of chrome on the steel structure. The natural frequency of coated specimen showed 8 to 10 % improvement, the forced response showed a 30 to 35 % decrement in displacement, the damping ratio showed a 200 % increment, and the time of decaying showed a 20 % decrement. The results of the present study provide new ideas for the development of high-damping structural elements.