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Description
Vibrations and shock loads pose challenges for aerospace components, potentially causing brittle fractures or electronic failures. Conventional countermeasures like dampers or absorbers add mass and reduce the available payload. Integrating Acoustic Black Holes (ABHs) offers a solution without additional mass.Within a structure, an ABH is a local geometric taper with a near-zero-thickness tip. In this way, the propagation of bending waves is reduced. In theory, reducing the thickness of a beam to zero stops the wave propagation and prevents the reflection of the waves. In practice, finite reduction is compensated by applying damping material to high-strain areas, enabling efficient dissipation. This achieves significant structural damping with minimal material usage.In this work, ABH structures are integrated into an iso-static mounting structure for satellites, which serves as an isolating connection for optical components. Design studies determine the optimal positions, shapes, and dimensions of the ABHs, without compromising structural integrity. A promising concept with a circular ABH in a second layer plate, as well as lateral ABH strips around the circumference, is simulated to estimate the dynamic behavior and the potential of improvement. It is shown that even challenging low-frequency in-plane and bending vibrations are successfully reduced by the ABHs.