Patent — available for licensing
Tension Element Vibration Damping
A NASA invention available to explore as a licensing opportunity.
About this technology
Overview
NASA engineers have developed a new approach to mitigating unwanted structural vibrations. NASA's method is fundamentally different from conventional passive and active vibration damping methods widely used today. Tension Element Vibration Damping uses “disruptive modal coupling” between two structures, each with their own vibrational behavior, to proactively provide vibration damping for one or both of the structures. This novel vibration damping method reacts to, and uses the vibrational tensile/compressive displacement itself to disrupt the vibration. Resistance to the displacement force is provided by either hydraulic, pneumatic, or magnetic means to suit the target application and the size/displacement of the vibration. Compared to conventional vibration passive and active damping methods, Tension Element Vibration Damping systems are simple in design, lightweight, highly effective, and adaptable to a range of applications with different structure sizes and types of vibration.