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Purpose: Particle dampers are dynamic vibration absorbers that can be attached or inserted into a vibrating structure for broadband vibration attenuation. The particle damping technique is widely used across various industries for vibration attenuation because of its conceptual simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and suitability for harsh environments (Gagnon et al. in J Sound Vib, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsv.2019.114865; Lu et al. in Struct Control Health Monit, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1002/stc.2058). However, designing a particle damper for real-world applications is significantly challenging primarily due to the interaction among the numerous parameters that influence the damping effectiveness of a particle damper. Therefore, this contribution aims to experimentally investigate the particle dampers performance in the context of their designs. Methods: We introduce three different design variants, namely thin-walled cavity (TWC), thin-walled cavity with additional sheets (TWC-AS), and ring cavity (RC). Different strategies are detailed and evaluated in the current paper. Following the comprehensive study of various design variants at the laboratory scale, several tests were conducted on a real-scale wind turbine generator, subjected to real-world loading conditions. Additionally, the effect of particle damper size and its location for the structure on vibration attenuation has been studied. Results: Based on the experimental investigation, all these variants are effective in reducing the vibration amplitude of a structure. Furthermore, it has been found that for practical applications, particularly in the case of large-scale mechanical structures such as wind turbines, it is advisable to combine the most successful variants to design a particle damper. This approach can achieve significant vibration attenuation, and also minimize the additional mass of the granular material compared to a conventional particle damper. Conclusion: The findings from our experimental studies offer valuable insight into the design of particle dampers for large-scale hollow mechanical structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A particle damper is a passive damping technique, which is based on the high damping properties of granular materials. The energy dissipation rate of a particle damper depends on several factors, like the type of granular materials, filling ratios, particle size, and shape, etc. Out of all these factors, the type of granular materials used to design a particle damper plays a major role. Therefore, this contribution aims to investigate the influence of eleven different granular materials on vibration attenuation. Furthermore, the application of particle dampers for reducing the low‐frequency vibration amplitude of a wind turbine generator has been demonstrated. For this, two different approaches, namely the damping plate concept and the existing cavity concept have been introduced. It has been found that both concepts are capable of reducing the vibration amplitude tremendously. The material investigation has shown that rubber granulate can reduce the vibration amplitude of the test specimen significantly higher in comparison to the other materials by increasing the additional mass to the entire system marginally. The material test is independent of any particular application. Hence, the results can be used to reduce the vibration amplitude of any mechanical structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]