Vibration response of tuneable structured fabrics

Structured fabrics are made by interwoven rigid elements that form flexible garments such as for example chain mail armours. Although the mechanical properties of these materials are usually fixed, recent publications have demonstrated that they can be varied mechanically. In particular, it has been shown that vacuum pressure applied between two layers of 3D printed chain mails wrapped in a bag causes jamming and looking of the chain mails and this can increase the bending modulus of the material. The increase in the effective bending modulus is partly due to the compressive frictional forces and partly to the geometrical interlocking of the rigid elements complex shapes. This paper investigates for the first time the vibration response of tuneable structured fabrics when subject to variable vacuum pressures. The investigation is focused on the variation of the vibration characteristics and of the dynamical properties with the vacuum pressure. Possible applications include the realization of lightweight adaptive and semi-active vibration mitigation devices.