Stable extremely-high-damping discrete viscoelastic systems due to negative stiffness elements

Systems with negative stiffness constituents can have extreme material properties greatly exceeding those of either constituent. We show that a discrete system with a viscoelastic damping element and a negative stiffness element can be made with overall viscoelastic damping orders of magnitude higher than that of any constituent, or of the system with all elements of positive stiffness. The product of stiffness and damping, important for vibration damping, is also enhanced by orders of magnitude. We show this system is unconditionally stable in the high damping regime. The singularity in damping can be made arbitrarily close to the stability boundary. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.