A model for vibration transmission of light-heavy structures

The vibration transmission of light-heavy structures is investigated in this paper. The light-heavy structure consists of a thin beam and a mass block. Based on numerical simulations with the finite element method and experiments, the block's effect on the thin beam is defined. A theoretical model for this beam-block structure is successfully developed, which is validated and agrees very well with the numerical and experimental models. Two kinds of transfer functions of velocities between any two points on the beam-block structure are studied experimentally and theoretically. The theoretical transfer functions agree well with the experimental results. There are peaks and valleys in the transfer functions, where the peaks occur at the anti-resonant frequencies of the second point and the valleys at the anti-resonant frequencies of the first point. Away from these peaks and valleys the magnitude of the transfer functions are about 0 dB for two points on the beam, and about 20 dB in our experiments for a point on the beam and another point on the block (close to the theoretical prediction of 18 dB determined by the mass ratio of the beam and the block). With these transfer functions, new techniques might be developed for indirect measurement of the vibration of the thin beam by measuring the vibration of the block.