Chapter 12: Modification of Rubbers for Vibration Damping Check Access

Rubbers are widely applied for noise and vibration reduction in a range of industries across the automotive, machinery, mining, aviation, construction and transport infrastructure industries. This chapter introduces working mechanisms, modification approaches and characterisation methods of rubbers for damping applications. The damping properties of rubbers can be evaluated by hysteresis damping testing, dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) and single cantilever vibration testing. Efforts to improve damping performance have been focused on the increase of the loss factor (tan δ) and the expansion of the effective temperature range (ΔT), involving the chemical modification of polymers, incorporation of small molecules and oligomers, nanofillers, or polymer blending, fabrication of interpenetrated polymer networks and structural laminates.