Comfort improvement of an elevator car by viscoelastic sandwich panels

Abstract

Viscoelastic sandwich structures have become one of the most important techniques to reduce structural vibrations. These structures have a great damping capacity due to their viscoelastic core, and their metallic skins provide them a high stiffness. In the present work, the improvement of using viscoelastic sandwich structures on the dynamic response of the cabin of an elevator was analysed. First of all, using the Abaqus software, a numerical model of the sandwich structures was created, taking the results of an experimental test as a reference. Afterwards, the numerical model of a cabin made of sandwich structures was created, and its dynamic response was obtained. In order to analyse the improvement of using sandwich structures, its response was compared to the response of an entirely metallic cabin. On the one hand, from a dynamic point of view, the transmission of vibrations through the different panels of the cabin was analysed. On the other hand, from an acoustic point of view, the noise that the cabin passengers would hear because of different sound sources was analysed. Considering the results of both analysis, the improvement of using viscoelastic sandwich structures was observed, showing that they could be a possible alternative to conventional metallic panels.