Vibration Reduction of an Existing Glass Window through a Viscoelastic Material-Based Retrofit

The damping properties of glass windows have a great influence on the comfort of the occupants, especially for buildings that are close to a vibration source, such as rail tracks. With the increasing popularity of light rails in cities, there is a strong need to retrofit existing glass windows to improve their damping properties, and increase the occupants’ comfort. In this paper, a new method of retrofitting existing glass windows for vibration reduction was developed using viscoelastic treatment. The key component of the retrofit was a self-adhesive glass constrained viscoelastic strip (SaGCVS), consisting of a thin glass constraining layer, a viscoelastic layer, and an adhesive layer. The SaGCVSs can be easily bonded onto an existing glass panel near its edge in an effort to improve its inherent damping properties, and to reduce its vibration when subjected to external excitations. The method is simple, and the proposed viscoelastic strip is easy to install. Experiments were carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. For the vibration measurements, lead zirconate titanate (PZT) patches were mounted onto the four corners and the center of the window glass panel. Comparative studies were performed, and the results clearly showed that the vibration of the window glass panel was reduced, revealing the effectiveness of the proposed retrofitting method for improvement in the damping properties of existing window structures.