Eigenvalue bounds for linear mechanical systems with nonmodal damping

Eigenvalue bounds for damped linear mechanical systems are presented based on a ‘modified equation of state’. The system exhibits nonmodal damping, by which we mean that classical normal modes do not obtain. The special case of an underdamped system is discussed, leading to bounds on a generalized damping ratio. The bounds are expressed in terms of the extreme eigenvalues of the constituent matrices. Geometrically, they define rectangular regions in the complex plane which contain the system eigenvalues.     

Characterization of bifurcating non-linear normal modes in piecewise linear mechanical systems

The non-linear modal properties of a vibrating 2-DOF system with non-smooth (piecewise linear) characteristics are investigated; this oscillator can suitably model beams with a breathing crack or systems colliding with an elastic obstacle. The system having two discontinuity boundaries is non-linearizable and exhibits the peculiar feature of a number of non-linear normal modes (NNMs) that are greater than the degrees of freedom. Since the non-linearities are concentrated at the origin, its non-linear frequencies are independent of the energy level and uniquely depend on the damage parameter. An analysis of the NNMs has been performed for a wide range of damage parameter by employing numerical procedures and Poincaré maps. The influence of damage on the non-linear frequencies has been investigated and bifurcations characterized by the onset of superabundant modes in internal resonance, with a significantly different shape than that of modes on fundamental branch, have been revealed.     

First order piecewise linear systems with random parametric excitation

The Fokker-Planck equation is used to develop a general method for finding the spectral density and other properties of first order systems governed by stochastic differential equations of the form

dx/dt + f(x)[1 + m(t)] = n(t)

, where f(x) is piecewise linear and m(t) and n(t) represent stationary Gaussian white noise. The method is similar to one used by the authors to deal with the case m(t) = 0, but is complicated by the possible existence of irregular (singular) points of the Fokker-Planck equation. Graphical results for some special cases are presented.     

Steady-state responses of mechanical system attached to non-smooth vibration absorber with piecewise damping and stiffness

Meccanica - The steady-state dynamic characteristics of non-smooth vibration absorbers are investigated. The complexification-averaging method is used to obtain the steady-state response equation...     

Normal modes for piecewise linear vibratory systems

A method to construct the normal modes for a class of piecewise linear vibratory systems is developed in this study. The approach utilizes the concepts of Poincaré maps and invariant manifolds from the theory of dynamical systems. In contrast to conventional methods for smooth systems, which expand normal modes in a series form around an equilibrium point of interest, the present method expands the normal modes in a series form of polar coordinates in a neighborhood of an invariant disk of the system. It is found that the normal modes, modal dynamics and frequency-amplitude dependence relationship are all of piecewise type. A two degree of freedom example is used to demonstrate the method.     

Order reduction of structural dynamic systems with static piecewise linear nonlinearities

A technique for order reduction of dynamic systems in structural form with static piecewise linear nonlinearities is presented. By utilizing two methods which approximate the nonlinear normal mode (NNM) frequencies and mode shapes, reduced-order models are constructed which more accurately represent the dynamics of the full model than do reduced models obtained via standard linear transformations. One method builds a reduced-order model which is dependent on the amplitude (initial conditions) while the other method results in an amplitude-independent reduced model. The two techniques are first applied to reduce two-degree-of-freedom undamped systems with clearance, deadzone, bang-bang, and saturation stiffness nonlinearities to single-mode reduced models which are compared by direct numerical simulation with the full models. It is then shown via a damped four-degree-of-freedom system with two deadzone nonlinearities that one of the proposed techniques allows for reduction to multi-mode reduced models and can accommodate multiple nonsmooth static nonlinearities with several surfaces of discontinuity. The advantages of the proposed methods include obtaining a reduced-order model which is signal-independent (doesn’t require direct integration of the full model), uses a subset of the original physical coordinates, retains the form of the nonsmooth nonlinearities, and closely tracks the actual NNMs of the full model.     

Solid damping in micro electro mechanical systems

This paper focuses on the problem of the numerical evaluation of dissipation induced by thermoelastic coupling in microelectromechanical systems. An ad hoc conceived, FE based, numerical procedure for the evaluation of the thermoelastic dissipation is proposed and the numerical results are compared with analytical solutions. In order to introduce in the numerical response a dependence on the size of the resonating devices, which is experimentally observed at very small dimensions, a new enhanced non-local coupled thermoelastic model is proposed and the first results are discussed. An erratum to this article can be found at     

The pseudo-Hopf bifurcation for planar discontinuous piecewise linear differential systems

The creation or destruction of a crossing limit cycle when a sliding segment changes its stability, is known as pseudo-Hopf bifurcation. In this paper, under generic conditions, we find an unfolding for such bifurcation, and we prove the existence and uniqueness of a crossing limit cycle for this family.

     

Numerical analysis of nonlinear modes of piecewise linear systems torsional vibrations

The nonlinear modes of essentially nonlinear piecewise-linear finite degrees of freedom systems are calculated by the numerical methods, which are suggested in this paper. The basis of these methods is numerical solutions of the equations of the systems motions in configuration space. The numerical method for the nonlinear modes of essentially nonlinear piecewise-linear systems forced vibrations is suggested. The basis of this approach is the combination of the Rauscher method and the calculations of the autonomous system nonlinear modes. The nonlinear modes of the diesel engine transmission torsional vibrations are analyzed numerically. The vibrations are described by essentially nonlinear piecewise-linear system with fifteen degrees of freedom. The NNMs of this system forced vibrations are observed in the resonance regions. Both NNMs and the motions, which are essentially differ from NNMs, are observed in the distance from the resonances. NNMs of the forced vibrations of the systems with dissipation are close to NNMs of the system without dissipation.     

Robust synchronization of a chaotic mechanical system with nonlinearities in control inputs

Centrifugal flywheel governors are known as chaotic non-autonomous mechanical devices used for automatic control of the speed of engines. The main characteristic of them is avoiding the damage caused by sudden change of the load torques. In this paper, the problem of robust finite-time synchronization of centrifugal flywheel governor systems is studied. The effects of unknown parameters, model uncertainties, external noises, and input nonlinearities are fully taken into account. We propose some adaptive laws to overcome the side effects of the unknown parameters of the system on the synchronization performance. Then, a robust adaptive switching controller is introduced to synchronize centrifugal flywheel governors with nonlinear control inputs in a given finite time. The finite-time fast convergence property of the proposed scheme is analytically proved and numerically illustrated.     

Experimental evidence of bifurcating nonlinear normal modes in piecewise linear systems

A system with piecewise linear restoring forces, typical of damaged beams with a breathing crack, exhibits bifurcations characterized by the onset of superabundant modes in internal resonance with a significantly different shape than that of modes on a fundamental branch. A 2-DOF frame with piecewise linear stiffness is analyzed by means of an experimental investigation; the frame is forced by an harmonic base excitation and the operative modal shapes as well as the response amplitude are directly measured; the results are compared with numerical outcomes for different damping values. This study shows that the shapes and the frequencies of certain nonlinear normal modes (NNMs) of the related autonomous system strongly affect the forced response, in both the numerical and the experimental environments. Therefore, it is possible to match the NNM with the forced response of the system, leading to the prospect of identifying the severity and position of the damage from experimental tests.     

Research on linear/nonlinear viscous damping and hysteretic damping in nonlinear vibration isolation systems

A nonlinear vibration isolation system is promising to provide a high-efficient broadband isolation performance. In this paper, a generalized vibration isolation system is established with nonlinear stiffness, nonlinear viscous damping, and Bouc-Wen(BW)hysteretic damping. An approximate analytical analysis is performed based on a harmonic balance method(HBM) and an alternating frequency/time(AFT) domain technique.To evaluate the damping effect, a generalized equivalent damping ratio is defined w...     

Nonlinear model predictive control based on piecewise linear Hammerstein models

This paper develops a nonlinear model predictive control (MPC) algorithm for dynamic systems represented by piecewise linear (PWL) Hammerstein models. At each sampling instant, the predicted output trajectory is linearized online at an assumed input trajectory such that the control actions can be easily calculated by solving a quadratic programming optimization problem, and such linearization and optimization may be repeated a few times for good linear approximation accuracy. A three-step procedure is developed to linearize a PWL function, where the derivatives of a PWL function are obtained by a computationally efficient look-up table approach. Unlike many existing MPC algorithms for Hammerstein systems, it does not require the inversion of static nonlinearity and can directly cope with input constraints even in multivariable systems. Two benchmark chemical reactors are studied to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.     

Nonlinear modes of piecewise linear systems under the action of periodic excitation

The approach for calculation of nonlinear normal modes (NNM) of essential nonlinear piecewise linear systems’ forced vibrations is suggested. The combination of the Shaw–Pierre NNMs and the Rauscher method is the basis of this approach. Using this approach, the nonautonomous piecewise linear system is transformed into autonomous one. The Shaw–Pierre NNMs are calculated for this autonomous system. Torsional vibrations of internal combustion engine power plant are analyzed using these NNMs.     

Non-trivial effects of high-frequency excitation for strongly damped mechanical systems

Some non-trivial effects are investigated, which can occur if strongly damped mechanical systems are subjected to strong high-frequency (HF) excitation. The main result is a theoretical prediction, supported by numerical simulation, that for such systems the (quasi-) equilibrium states can change substantially with the level of damping. For example, a strongly damped pendulum, with a hinge vibrated at high frequency along an elliptical path with horizontal or vertical axis, will line up along a line offset from the vertical; the offset vanishes for very light or very strong damping, attaining a maximum that can be substantial (depending on the strength of the HF excitation) for finite values of the damping. The analysis is focused on the differences between the classic results for weakly damped systems, and new effects for which the strong damping terms are responsible. The analysis is based on a slightly modified averaging technique, and includes an elementary example of an elliptically excited pendulum for illustration, alongside with a generalization to a broader class of strongly damped dynamical systems with HF excitation. As an application example, the non-trivial behavior of a classical optimally controlled non-linear system is investigated, illustrating how HF excitation may cause the controller to leave the system in an unexpected equilibrium state, quite different from the setpoint. The effects can be interesting for specialists in control of mechanical systems and structures. However the obtained results are more general. Similar effects could be expected first of all for microsystems where damping forces are typically dominating over inertia forces.     

The analysis of arbitrarily-damped linear mechanical systems

Summary The analysis of arbitrarily-damped linear mechanical systems is the subject of this paper, the main issue being the analysis of nondecouplable systems. It is well known that decouplable systems occur when the damping matrix happens to be a linear combination of the mass and stiffness matrices. Systems with this type of damping are said to have proportional damping, which nevertheless seldom occurs in practice, but many a damped system is analyzed under the assumption that it is proportionally damped. In fact, this property allows the analyst to study these systems using the same approach as that applicable to their undamped counterparts. In this paper, we show that proportional damping need not be assumed in order to analyze the system at hand with the same approach as used to analyze undamped systems. Moreover, we propose an algorithm to determine the natural frequencies, the damped frequencies and the damping ratios of an n-degree-of-freedom damped system, that does not require the casting of the system into first-order form. In this way, the characteristic equation is derived naturally as a 2n-degree polynomial, computing its roots being then straightforward. Furthermore, we propose a semigraphical method to ease this calculation, which should be attractive to practicing engineers. Received 5 April 1999; accepted for publication 7 May 1999