Abstract: A damping apparatus and method uses one or more tension elements fabricated from shape memory alloy to cycle through a superelastic stress-strain hysteresis to provide energy dissipation. The method and apparatus can be used for damping of any structures, such as machine parts, building structures, offshore platforms, and nanostructures that are subject to any type of vibration, such as acoustic, seismic, blast, impact, wave and wind. The tension elements can be wire loops or bands that are prestretched into approximately the middle of the stress-strain hysteresis. Such a damping apparatus can be designed to have any selected stroke or force capacity by adjusting the length, thickness and number of the tension elements. Moreover, any type of complex force-deflection hysteresis can be designed, for example, a triangular flag, a rectangle, a rectangular flag, a bowtie, or a staging characteristic that provides for hardening or softening.

Abstract: The invention discloses a means of increasing the maximum allowable load on mechanical elements that roll on each other, such as the members of constant or variable speed friction drives, ball or roller bearings, rollers, etc. The increased allowable load is achieved by constructing at least one of the elements that roll on each other in two parts, including a rolling-surface part that is heavily preloaded by one or more additional parts that induce large compressive stresses on the principal planes normal to the rolling-surface. Optimum materials for the rolling-surface part are those that have a large modulus of resilience, since these materials afford the maximum allowable load capacity. In addition to hardened steels, such materials include shape-memory materials, reinforced plastics, bronze and aluminum alloys, and chilled cast iron. Shape-memory materials in particular have the advantage of simplifying the supporting structure, especially when the rolling surface is convex.