Frequency–energy plot and targeted energy transfer analysis of coupled bistable nonlinear energy sink with linear oscillator

The nonlinear energy sink (NES), which is proven to perform rapid and passive targeted energy transfer (TET), has been employed for vibration mitigation in many primary small- and large-scale structures. Recently, the feature of bistability, in which two nontrivial stable equilibria and one trivial unstable equilibrium exist, is utilized for passive TET in what is known as bistable NES (BNES). The BNES generates a nonlinear force that incorporates negative linear and multiple positive or negative nonlinear stiffness components. In this paper, the BNES is coupled to a linear oscillator (LO) where the dynamic behavior of the resulting LO-BNES system is studied through frequency–energy plots (FEPs), which are generated by analytical approximation using the complexification-averaging method and by numerical continuation techniques. The effect of the length and stiffness of the transverse coupling springs is found to affect the stability and topology of the branches and indicates the importance of the exact physical realization of the system. The rich nonlinear dynamical behavior of the LO-BNES system is also highlighted through the appearance of multiple symmetrical and unsymmetrical in- and out-of-phase backbone branches, especially at low energy levels. The superimposed wavelet frequency spectrums of the LO-BNES response on the FEP have verified the robustness of the TET mechanism where the role of the unsymmetrical NNM backbones in TET is clearly observed.

     

Numerical and experimental investigations of a rotating nonlinear energy sink

In this work, passive nonlinear targeted energy transfer (TET) is addressed by numerically and experimentally investigating a lightweight rotating nonlinear energy sink (NES) which is coupled to a primary two-degree-of-freedom linear oscillator through an essentially nonlinear (i.e., non-linearizable) inertial nonlinearity. It is found that the rotating NES passively absorbs and rapidly dissipates a considerable portion of impulse energy initially induced in the primary oscillator. The parameters of the rotating NES are optimized numerically for optimal performance under intermediate and strong loads. The fundamental mechanism for effective TET to the NES is the excitation of its rotational nonlinear mode, since its oscillatory mode dissipates far less energy. This involves a highly energetic and intense resonance capture of the transient nonlinear dynamics at the lowest modal frequency of the primary system; this is studied in detail by constructing an appropriate frequency–energy plot. A series of experimental tests is then performed to validate the theoretical predictions. Based on the obtained numerical and experimental results, the performance of the rotating NES is found to be comparable to other current translational NES designs; however, the proposed rotating device is less complicated and more compact than current types of NESs.     

Performance measures for targeted energy transfer and resonance capture cascading in nonlinear energy sinks

In vibrating mechanical systems, the targeted energy transfer mechanism (TET) of nonlinear energy sinks (NES) is employed as an alternative to linear tuned mass dampers (TMD) as passive vibrations absorbers for transient vibrations. The major advantages a NES has over a linear TMD are (1) an increased robustness to detuning and (2) the ability to dissipate multiple frequencies with only a single NES through so-called resonance capture cascading (RCC). The performance, especially the speed, of TET and RCC has rarely been a topic of research. In this research, algebraic performance measures for the speed of both TET and RCC are derived, called the pumping time and the cascading time, respectively. It shows that cascading time can be seen as a sum of single-mode pumping times, by introducing a novel modal decomposition. The strength of both measures is that they do not require numerical simulations, allowing easy optimization of the NES. The influence of different nonlinearities on the TET and RCC performance is investigated. Actual numerical simulations presented in the study validate the merit of both the pumping time and cascading time.     

Design criteria for optimally tuned nonlinear energy sinks—part 1: transient regime

The context of present work is related to the study of strongly nonlinear absorbers (NESs) aimed to attenuate vibrations induced in a single degree-of-freedom oscillator and working under the principle of targeted energy transfer (TET). The purpose motivated by practical considerations is here to establish a design criterion permitting to first ensure whether NES absorber is active or not and second to provide a nonlinear stiffness lower bound for optimal energy absorption during pumping phases. An asymptotic expansion of dynamic equations of motion under transient regime enables to emphasize a new definition of activation energy and to investigate the influence of damping upon the efficiency of one-way channeled energy transfer. Methodology is straightforwardly extended to the case of multiple NES attached in parallel to the primary oscillator. Numerical benchmark simulations corroborate the reliability and robustness of proposed design procedure.     

Targeted energy transfer of a parallel nonlinear energy sink

A parallel nonlinear energy sink(NES) is proposed and analyzed. The parallel NES is composed of a vibro-impact(VI) NES and a cubic NES. The dynamical equation is given, and the essential analytical investigation is carried out to deal with the cubic nonlinearity and impact nonlinearity. Multiple time-scale expansion is introduced, and the zeroth order is derived to give a rough outline of the system. The underlying Hamilton dynamic equation is given, and then the optimal stiffness is expressed. The clearance is regarded as a critical factor for the VI. Based on the periodical impact treatment by analytical investigation, the relationships of the cubic stiffness, the clearance, and the zeroth-order attenuation amplitude of the linear primary oscillator(LPO) are obtained.A cubic NES under the optimal condition is compared with the parallel NES. Harmonic signals, harmonic signals with noises, and the excitation generated by a second-order?lter are considered as the potential excitation forces on the system. The targeted energy transfer(TET) in the designed parallel NES is shown to be more e?cient.     

Vibration absorption of parallel-coupled nonlinear energy sink under shock and harmonic excitations

Nonlinear energy sink(NES) can passively absorb broadband energy from primary oscillators. Proper multiple NESs connected in parallel exhibit superior performance to single-degree-of-freedom(SDOF) NESs. In this work, a linear coupling spring is installed between two parallel NESs so as to expand the application scope of such vibration absorbers. The vibration absorption of the parallel and parallel-coupled NESs and the system response induced by the coupling spring are studied. The results show that the responses of the system exhibit a significant difference when the heavier cubic oscillators in the NESs have lower stiffness and the lighter cubic oscillators have higher stiffness. Moreover, the efficiency of the parallel-coupled NES is higher for medium shocks but lower for small and large shocks than that of the parallel NESs. The parallel-coupled NES also shows superior performance for medium harmonic excitations until higher response branches are induced. The performance of the parallel-coupled NES and the SDOF NES is compared. It is found that, regardless of the chosen SDOF NES parameters, the performance of the parallel-coupled NES is similar or superior to that of the SDOF NES in the entire force range.     

Vibration suppression and higher branch responses of beam with parallel nonlinear energy sinks

The effects of nonlinear energy sink (NES) on vibration suppression of a simply supported beam are investigated in this work. The slow flow equations of the system are derived by using complexification–averaging method, and the validity of the derivation is verified. By comparing the vibration absorption of single and parallel NESs of equal mass, it is found that the latter exhibits superior vibration absorption performance. In addition, the parallel NES can eliminate higher branch responses of the system under the harmonic load. Furthermore, it is found that parallel NES can eliminate the higher branches of the system more effectively by tuning nonlinear stiffness and damping. Moreover, the thermal effect on natural frequencies of the simply supported beam is considered, and the influences of the parallel NES’s parameters on the energy dissipation rate under shock load are investigated. The nonlinear responses of the simply supported beam with parallel NES under harmonic load and with the increase of temperature are described.     

Integration of a nonlinear energy sink and a piezoelectric energy harvester

A mechanical-piezoelectric system is explored to reduce vibration and to harvest energy. The system consists of a piezoelectric device and a nonlinear energy sink(NES), which is a nonlinear oscillator without linear stiffness. The NES-piezoelectric system is attached to a 2-degree-of-freedom primary system subjected to a shock load. This mechanical-piezoelectric system is investigated based on the concepts of the percentages of energy transition and energy transition measure. The strong target energy transfer occurs for some certain transient excitation amplitude and NES nonlinear stiffness. The plots of wavelet transforms are used to indicate that the nonlinear beats initiate energy transitions between the NES-piezoelectric system and the primary system in the transient vibration, and a 1:1 transient resonance capture occurs between two subsystems.The investigation demonstrates that the integrated NES-piezoelectric mechanism can reduce vibration and harvest some vibration energy.     

Resonance captures and targeted energy transfers in an inertially-coupled rotational nonlinear energy sink

We explore the conservative and dissipative dynamics of a two-degree-of-freedom (2-DoF) system consisting of a linear oscillator and a lightweight nonlinear rotator inertially coupled to it. When the total energy of the system is large enough, the motion of the rotator is, generically, chaotic. Moreover, we show that if the damping of the rotator is sufficiently small and the damping of the linear oscillator is even smaller, then the system passes through a cascade of resonance captures (transient internal resonances) as the total energy gradually decreases. Rather unexpectedly, all these captures have the same principal frequency but correspond to different nonlinear normal modes (NNMs). In each NNM, the rotator is phase-locked into periodic motion with two frequencies. The NNMs differ by the ratio of these frequencies, which is approximately an integer for each NNM. Essentially non-integer ratios lead to incommensurate periods of ??slow?? and ??fast?? motions of the rotator and, thus, to its chaotic behavior between successive resonance captures. Furthermore, we show that these cascades of resonance captures lead to targeted energy transfer (TET) from the linear oscillator to the rotator, with the latter serving, in essence, as a nonlinear energy sink (NES). Since the inertially-coupled NES that we consider has no linearized natural frequency, it is capable of engaging in resonance with the linear oscillator over broad frequency and energy ranges. The results presented herein indicate that the proposed rotational NES appears to be a promising design for broadband shock mitigation and vibration energy harvesting.     

Vibration reduction evaluation of a linear system with a nonlinear energy sink under a harmonic and random excitation

The nonlinear behaviors and vibration reduction of a linear system with a nonlinear energy sink(NES)are investigated.The linear system is excited by a harmonic and random base excitation,consisting of a mass block,a linear spring,and a linear viscous damper.The NES is composed of a mass block,a linear viscous damper,and a spring with ideal cubic nonlinear stiffness.Based on the generalized harmonic function method,the steady-state Fokker-Planck-Kolmogorov equation is presented to reveal the response of the system.The path integral method based on the Gauss-Legendre polynomial is used to achieve the numerical solutions.The performance of vibration reduction is evaluated by the displacement and velocity transition probability densities,the transmissibility transition probability density,and the percentage of the energy absorption transition probability density of the linear oscillator.The sensitivity of the parameters is analyzed for varying the nonlinear stiffness coefficient and the damper ratio.The investigation illustrates that a linear system with NES can also realize great vibration reduction under harmonic and random base excitations and random bifurcation may appear under different parameters,which will affect the stability of the system.     

Dynamic design of a nonlinear energy sink with NiTiNOL-steel wire ropes based on nonlinear output frequency response functions

A novel vibration isolation device called the nonlinear energy sink(NES)with Ni Ti NOL-steel wire ropes(Ni Ti-ST) is applied to a whole-spacecraft system. The Ni Ti-ST is used to describe the damping of the NES, which is coupled with the modified Bouc-Wen model of hysteresis. The NES with Ni Ti-ST vibration reduction principle uses the irreversibility of targeted energy transfer(TET) to concentrate the energy locally on the nonlinear oscillator, and then dissipates it through damping in the NES with Ni Ti-ST.The generalized vibration transmissibility, obtained by the root mean square treatment of the harmonic response of the nonlinear output frequency response functions(NOFRFs),is first used as the evaluation index to analyze the whole-spacecraft system in the future.An optimization analysis of the impact of system responses is performed using different parameters of NES with Ni Ti-ST based on the transmissibility of NOFRFs. Finally, the effects of vibration suppression by varying the parameters of Ni Ti-ST are analyzed from the perspective of energy absorption. The results indicate that NES with Ni Ti-ST can reduce excessive vibration of the whole-spacecraft system, without changing its natural frequency. Moreover, the NES with Ni Ti-ST can be directly used in practical engineering applications.     

Steady State Passive Nonlinear Energy Pumping in Coupled Oscillators: Theoretical and Experimental Results

We study theoretically and experimentally the effect that anonlinear energy sink (NES) has on the steady state dynamics of a weaklycoupled system. The NES possesses essentially nonlinear(nonlinearizable) stiffness nonlinearity of the third degree. We findthat, in contrast to the classical linear vibration absorber, the NES iscapable of absorbing steady state vibration energy from the linearoscillator over a relatively broad frequency range. This results inlocalization of the steady state vibration in the NES, away from thedirectly forced subsystem. For a forward frequency sweep the localizedbranch of steady state motions is suddenly eliminated by a jump to alinearized low-amplitude motion, whereas, for a backward frequency sweepa reverse jump occurs. The difference in the frequencies of the twojumps introduces a nonlinear hysteresis loop. This work extends to thesteady state case of earlier transient passive energy pumping results.The notion of passively transferring vibration energy to an a prioridetermined NES, weakly attached to a main structure, is novel. The useof nonlinear energy sinks for passively absorbing energy from a linearmain structure can form the basis of relatively simple and modularvibration and shock isolation designs of mechanical systems.     

Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy generalized predictive control for a class of nonlinear systems

The new generations of compact high output power-to-weight ratio internal combustion engines generate broadband torsional oscillations, transmitted to lightly damped drivetrain systems. A novel approach to mitigate these untoward vibrations can be the use of nonlinear absorbers. These act as Nonlinear Energy Sinks (NESs). The NES is coupled to the primary (drivetrain) structure, inducing passive irreversible targeted energy transfer (TET) from the drivetrain system to the NES. During this process, the vibration energy is directed from the lower-frequency modes of the structure to the higher ones. Thereafter, vibrations can be either dissipated through structural damping or consumed by the NES. This paper uses a lumped parameter model of an automotive driveline to simulate the effect of TET and the assumed modal energy redistribution. Significant redistribution of vibratory energy is observed through TET. Furthermore, the integrated optimization process highlights the most effective configuration and parametric evaluation for use of NES.     

Attractors of harmonically forced linear oscillator with attached nonlinear energy sink. II: Optimization of a nonlinear vibration absorber

This paper is the second one in the series of two papers devoted to detailed investigation of the response regimes of a linear oscillator with attached nonlinear energy sink (NES) under harmonic external forcing and assessment of possible application of the NES for vibration absorption and mitigation. In this paper, we study the performance of a strongly nonlinear, damped vibration absorber with relatively small mass attached to a periodically excited linear oscillator. We present a nonlinear absorber tuning procedure in the vicinity of (1:1) resonance which provides the best total system energy suppression, using analytical and numerical tools. A linear absorber is also tuned according to the same criterion of total system energy suppression as the nonlinear one. Both optimally tuned absorbers are compared under common parameters of damping, external forcing but different absorber stiffness characteristics; certain cases for which nonlinear absorber is preferable over the linear one are revealed and confirmed numerically.     

NES cell

A broadband adaptive vibration control strategy with high reliability and flexible versatility is proposed. The high vibration damping performance of nonlinear energy sink (NES) has attracted attention. However, targeted energy transfer may cause severe vibration of NES. Besides, it is difficult to realize pure nonlinear stiffness without the linear part. As a result, the reliability of NES is not high. The low reliability of NES has hindered its application in engineering. In addition, the performance of NES depends on its mass ratio of the primary system, and NES lacks versatility for different vibration systems. Therefore, this paper proposes the concept of NES cell. The advantages of the adaptive vibration control of NES are applied to cellular NES. By applying a large number of NES cells in parallel, the reliability of NES and its versatility to complex vibration structures are improved. An elastic beam is used as the primary vibration structure, and a limited NES is used as the cell. The relationship between the vibration suppression effect of NES cells and the number of NES cell is studied. In addition, the effect of the distribution of NES cells on the multi-mode resonance suppression of the beam is also studied. In summary, the mode of the primary structure can be efficiently controlled by a large number of lightweight NES cell. Therefore, the lightweight NES cell is flexible for vibration control of complex structures. In addition, it improves the reliability of NES applications. Therefore, the distributed application of NES cells proposed in this paper is a valuable vibration suppression strategy.     

Passive targeted energy transfers and strong modal interactions in the dynamics of a thin plate with strongly nonlinear attachments

We study targeted energy transfers (TETs) and nonlinear modal interactions attachments occurring in the dynamics of a thin cantilever plate on an elastic foundation with strongly nonlinear lightweight attachments of different configurations in a more complicated system towards industrial applications. We examine two types of shock excitations that excite a subset of plate modes, and systematically study, nonlinear modal interactions and passive broadband targeted energy transfer phenomena occurring between the plate and the attachments. The following attachment configurations are considered: (i) a single ungrounded, strongly (essentially) nonlinear single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) attachment—termed nonlinear energy sink (NES); (ii) a set of two SDOF NESs attached at different points of the plate; and (iii) a single multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) NES with multiple essential stiffness nonlinearities. We perform parametric studies by varying the parameters and locations of the NESs, in order to optimize passive TETs from the plate modes to the attachments, and we showed that the optimal position for the NES attachments are at the antinodes of the linear modes of the plate. The parametric study of the damping coefficient of the SDOF NES showed that TETs decreasing with lower values of the coefficient and moreover we showed that the threshold of maximum energy level of the system with strong TETs occured in discrete models is by far beyond the limits of the engineering design of the continua. We examine in detail the underlying dynamical mechanisms influencing TETs by means of empirical mode decomposition (EMD) in combination with wavelet transforms. This integrated approach enables us to systematically study the strong modal interactions occurring between the essentially nonlinear NESs and different plate modes, and to detect the dominant resonance captures between the plate modes and the NESs that cause the observed TETs. Moreover, we perform comparative studies of the performance of different types of NESs and of the linear tuned mass dampers (TMDs) attached to the plate instead of the NESs. Finally, the efficacy of using this type of essentially nonlinear attachments as passive absorbers of broadband vibration energy is discussed.     

Nonlinear vibration energy harvesting with adjustable stiffness,damping and inertia

A novel nonlinear structure with adjustable stiffness, damping and inertia is proposed and studied for vibration energy harvesting. The system consists of an adjustable-inertia system and X-shaped supporting structures. The novelty of the adjustable-inertia design is to enhance the mode coupling property between two orthogonal motion directions, i.e., the translational and rotational directions, which is very helpful for the improvement of the vibration energy harvesting performance. Weakly nonlinear stiffness and damping characteristics can be introduced by the X-shaped supporting structures. Combining the mode coupling effect above and the nonlinear stiffness and damping characteristics of the X-shaped structures, the vibration energy harvesting performance can be significantly enhanced, in both the low frequency range and broadband spectrum. The proposed 2-DOF nonlinear vibration energy harvesting structure can outperform the corresponding 2-DOF linear system and the existing nonlinear harvesting systems. The results in this study provide a novel and effective method for passive structure design of vibration energy harvesting systems to improve efficiency in the low frequency range.     

Interactions of propagating waves in a one-dimensional chain of linear oscillators with a strongly nonlinear local attachment

We study the interaction of propagating wavetrains in a one-dimensional chain of coupled linear damped oscillators with a strongly nonlinear, lightweight, dissipative local attachment which acts, in essence, as nonlinear energy sink—NES. Both symmetric and highly un-symmetric NES configurations are considered, labelled S-NES and U-NES, respectively, with strong (in fact, non-linearizable or nearly non-linearizable) stiffness nonlinearity. Especially for the case of U-NES we show that it is capable of effectively arresting incoming slowly modulated pulses with a single fast frequency by scattering the energy of the pulse to a range of frequencies, by locally dissipating a major portion of the incoming energy, and then by backscattering residual waves upstream. As a result, the wave transmission past the location of the NES is minimized, and the NES acts, in effect, as passive wave arrestor and reflector. Analytical reduced-order modeling of the dynamics is performed through complexification/averaging. In addition, governing nonlinear dynamics is studied computationally and compared to the analytical predictions. Results from the reduced order model recover the exact computational simulations.     

Clearance-type nonlinear energy sinks for enhancing performance in electroacoustic wave energy harvesting

This paper explores a clearance-type nonlinear energy sink (NES) for increasing electrical energy harvested from non-stationary mechanical waves, such as those encountered during impact and intermittent events. The key idea is to trap energy in the NES such that it can be harvested over a time period longer than that afforded by the passing disturbance itself. Analytical, computational, and experimental techniques are employed to optimize the energy sink, explore qualitative behavior (to include bifurcations), and verify enhanced performance. Unlike traditionally studied single-DOF NESs, both subdomains of the NES (i.e., on either side of the clearance) contain displaceable degrees of freedom, increasing the complexity of the analytical solution approach. However, closed-form solutions are found which quantify the relationship between the impact amplitude and the energy produced, parameterized by system properties such as the harvester effective resistance, the clearance gap, and the domain mass and stiffness. Bifurcation diagrams and trends therein provide insight into the number and state of impact events at the NES as excitation amplitude increases. Moreover, a closed-form Poincaré map is derived which maps one NES impact location to the next, greatly simplifying the analysis while providing an important tool for follow-on bifurcation studies. Finally, a series of representative experiments are carried out to realize the benefits of using clearance-type nonlinearities to trap wave energy and increase the net harvested energy.     

Steady-State dynamics of a linear structure weakly coupled to an essentially nonlinear oscillator

We present a theoretical study of the dynamics of the coupled system of Jiang, McFarland, Bergman, and Vakakis. It comprises a harmonically excited linear subsystem weakly coupled to an essentially nonlinear oscillator. We explored the rich dynamics exhibited by this coupled system by determining its periodic responses and their bifurcations. Not surprisingly, we found a lot of interesting dynamics over a broad frequency range: cyclic-fold, Hopf, symmetry-breaking, and period-doubling bifurcations; phase-locked motions; regions with multiple coexisting solutions; hysteresis; and chaos. We did not find any occurrence of energy transfer via modulation (also known as zero-to-one internal resonance); theoretically, the possibility of its occurrence was ruled out for systems with weak nonlinearity and damping. Finally, we investigated the ef fectiveness of the so-called nonlinear energy sink (NES) in vibration attenuation of forced linear structures. We found that the NES results in an increase in the vibration amplitude of the linear subsystem, especially when the damping is low, contrary to the claim made by Jiang et al. Also, we did not find any indication of nonlinear energy pumping or localization of energy in the NES, away from the directly forced linear subsystem, indicating that the NES is not ef fective for controlling the vibrations of forced linear structures.