Plate Damping due to Thickness Deformations in Attached Viscoelastic Layers

Energy dissipation due to thicknesswise motion of viscoelastic layers attached to plates is analyzed in order to supplement previous analyses of damping due to shear, flexural, and in‐plane extensional motions. It is shown that the thicknesswise motion may constitute an important damping mechanism for relatively soft and thick viscoelastic layers at frequencies corresponding to standing‐wave resonances in the damping layer. The general behavior of thickness‐compression damping layers is discussed on the basis of a relatively simple analysis, and reasonable agreement between theory and experimental results is demonstrated.