Experimental and theoretical study on dynamic performance of interfacial enhanced viscoelastic dampers with pattern metasurface structures

Viscoelastic damper is widely applied in structural energy dissipation and vibration control, as it is critical for ensuring the structural stability and enhancing energy dissipation. This study designs two novel viscoelastic dampers with patterned metasurface structure to improve the performance of dampers. The dynamic behaviors of novel dampers are investigated through dynamic loading experiments under different frequencies, temperatures, and displacement amplitudes. An equivalent fractional-order dual-branch model is proposed to consider the effect of temperature and frequency for viscoelastic constitutive model. Based on this model, the interfacial failure behavior between viscoelastic layer and rigid substrate is investigated, and the effects of temperature and frequency on the critical displacement and energy release rate is analyzed. The mechanical behavior of interfacial failure between the viscoelastic layer and steel plate under different patterned metasurface structures (palm-shaped and fingerprint-shaped) is investigated. A theoretical analysis is conducted on the effects of metasurface geometric parameters on interfacial bonding strength. Experiments and theories indicate that temperature, frequency, and the patterned metasurface interfacial design significantly influence interfacial bonding strength and energy dissipation of dampers. The present work demonstrates that effective metasurface structural design enhances interfacial bonding strength and fracture toughness, thereby improving energy dissipation capacity of the damper.