Damping of selectively bonded 3D woven lattice materials

The objective of this paper is to unveil a novel damping mechanism exhibited by 3D woven lattice materials (3DW), with emphasis on response to high-frequency excitations. Conventional bulk damping materials, such as rubber, exhibit relatively low stiffness, while stiff metals and ceramics typically have negligible damping. Here we demonstrate that high damping and structural stiffness can be simultaneously achieved in 3D woven lattice materials by brazing only select lattice joints, resulting in a load-bearing lattice frame intertwined with free, ‘floating’ lattice members to generate damping. The produced material samples are comparable to polymers in terms of damping coefficient, but are porous and have much higher maximum use temperature. We shed light on a novel damping mechanism enabled by an interplay between the forcing frequency imposed onto a load-bearing lattice frame and the motion of the embedded, free-moving lattice members. This novel class of damping metamaterials has potential use in a broad range of weight sensitive applications that require vibration attenuation at high frequencies.