Two-way coupled MBD–DEM modeling and experimental validation for the dynamic response of mechanisms containing damping particles

Damping particles can be used to attenuate vibrations in mechanisms. However, damping particles and mechanical parts interact in an extremely complex manner, which affects the energy dissipation of the mechanisms. This study proposes two-way coupled models based on Multi-Body Dynamics (MBD) and Discrete Element Method (DEM) to solve granule-structure interaction problems, and uses two sets of experiments to validate the numerical model. Subsequently, the validated coupled MBD–DEM model was used to further investigate the effects of cavity size and chamber number of particle dampers on the dynamic characteristics of mechanisms. Results show that the coupled MBD–DEM simulations reasonably agree with the corresponding experiments. In the mechanism with a particle damper, under the same mass but with different cavity sizes, the effect of vibration reduction follows the sequence: 1/4 box>1/8 box>1/16 box. Under the same mass but with different chamber numbers, the degree of damping follows the sequence: single-chamber box>double-chamber box>triple-chamber box. Adding damping particles to mechanisms does not affect the vibration period, but does reduce the acceleration amplitude.