Vibration damping characterization of linseed oil‐based elastomers for its effectiveness to attenuate structural vibration

Vibration damping properties of elastomers prepared from linseed oil were characterized by dynamic mechanical analyzer in a temperature range of −50 to 100°C and frequency range of 5 Hz to 1 kHz. The maximum damping loss factor,( tan ⁡ δ ) max ⁡varies from 0.78 to 1.32, the room temperature (25°C) loss factor,( tan ⁡ δ ) rt in the range of 0.56–1.08 and the temperature range ( Δ T ) for effective damping ( tan ⁡ δ ≥ 0.3 ) varies from 63°C to 74.4°C in different elastomers. The elastomers behave as a good vibration damper both in lower and higher frequency range. Thus these elastomers exhibit good damping behavior in a wide range of temperature and frequency, a primary requirement for practical damping applications. A modal constrained layer damping system constructed utilizing these elastomers exhibits its potentiality to attenuate structural vibrations with respect to mild steel bare plate resonator under laboratory fabricated testing methodology. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 130: 3611–3623, 2013