Experimental study of non-linear energy pumping occurring at a single fast frequency

Experimental verification of passive non-linear energy pumping in a two-degree-of-freedom system comprising a damped linear oscillator coupled to an essentially non-linear attachment is carried out. In the experiments presented the non-linear attachment interacts with a single linear mode and, hence, energy pumping occurs at a single ‘fast’ frequency in the neighborhood of the eigenfrequency of the linear mode. Good agreement between simulated and experimental results was observed, in spite of the strongly (essentially) non-linear and transient nature of the dynamics of the system considered. The experiments bear out earlier predictions that a significant fraction of the energy introduced directly to a linear structure by an external impulsive (broadband) load can be transferred (pumped) to an essentially non-linear attachment, and dissipated there locally without spreading back to the system. In addition, the reported experimental results confirm that (a) non-linear energy pumping in systems of coupled oscillators can occur only above a certain threshold of the input energy, and (b) there is an optimal value of the energy input at which a maximum portion of the energy is absorbed and dissipated at the NES.