Survey of impact damper performance

An overall picture of the impact damper is obtained by using time-history solutions of the system motion for the oscillator in free decay. The impactor behavior depends very strongly on oscillator amplitude, and free decay can sample the full range of behavior from an infinite number of impacts per cycle at high amplitude to no impacts at low amplitude. The overall picture cannot be obtained by analysis of steady-state forced response. Yet, the predictions are relevant to forced response behavior when the damping is relatively light. Three major regimes of impact behavior are shown to exist: low, middle and high amplitude ranges.