Nonlinear vibration isolator with adjustable restoring force

This paper presents a vertical quasi-zero stiffness (QZS) vibration isolator with a mechanism for adjusting restoring force. QZS vibration isolators have high initial stiffness and QZS around the static equilibrium position. This way, excessive deformation due to self-weight can be avoided while having enough vibration reduction capability to dynamic excitations. One of the main issues left for QZS vibration isolators is the difficulty in keeping the vibration reduction capability when the vibration isolated object is replaced. In such a case, adjustment of its restoring force becomes necessary in accordance with the self-weight of the newly placed vibration isolated object. This paper attempts to address this issue by proposing a mechanism that enables quick and easy adjustment of the restoring force of a QZS vibration isolator. The proposed mechanism consists of cranks and a screw jack. With the present mechanism, the restoring force provided by horizontally placed springs can be converted into the vertical restoring force of the vibration isolator. In the conversion, the vertical resisting force can be adjusted simply by applying and removing torque to the screw jack to change and hold the angle of inclined bars placed in the cranks. In this study, a prototype of a class of QZS vibration isolator having the proposed mechanism is produced. Shaking table tests are performed to demonstrate the efficacy of the present mechanism, where the produced prototype is subjected to various sinusoidal and earthquake ground motions. It is demonstrated through the shaking table tests that the produced prototype can reduce the response acceleration within the same tolerance even when the mass of the vibration isolated object is changed.     

Approximations for motion of the oscillators with a non-negative real-power restoring force

Oscillators with a non-negative real-power restoring force are considered in this paper. This type of restoring force is related to systems with a quasi-zero stiffness characteristic or those in which the restoring force is purely nonlinear in nature. Examples of these types of restoring force are grounded in real physical and engineering systems. Periodic motion of such conservative oscillators is described first in a novel way by means of the elliptic function the parameters of which are obtained from the energy conservation law and Hamilton's variational principle. Then, the approach is extended to non-conservative oscillators by adjusting the elliptic Krylov-Bogoliubov method. The methods proposed for the conservative and non-conservative systems under consideration have wider applications than the existing one with respect to the power of the restoring force. Several examples, the majority of which are so far unsolved, are given to illustrate the methods proposed and to demonstrate their generality, which permits unforeseen solutions for motion, containing higher harmonics and assuring consistent accuracy regardless of the value of the power of the restoring force. The results obtained are compared with numerical results and have excellent accuracy.     

Neural-Preisach-type models and their application to the identification of magnetic hysteresis from noisy data

A novel class of Preisach-type hysteresis transducers is introduced and their properties are investigated. These transducers can be numerically implemented by using feed-forward neural networks and their identification can be performed by learning algorithms. Numerical examples that provide evidence of the capability of this approach of filtering noise embedded in the data used for identification, are presented.     

Microscopic calculation of the restoring force for scissor isovector vibrations

The restoring force for scissor isovector vibrations is calculated microscopically with the wave functions of an axially symmetric Woods-Saxon potential from a density-dependent symmetry energy. The experimental energies of the low-lying magnetic dipole states in rare-earth nuclei are well reproduced. It is found that only outer particles, which contribute to the nuclear moment of inertia, take part in this collective vibration. They are about half of the total number of nucleons.     

Bifurcations and chaotic threshold for a nonlinear system with an irrational restoring force

Nonlinear dynamical systems with an irrational restoring force often occur in both science and engineering, and always lead to a barrier for conventional nonlinear techniques. In this paper, we have investigated the global bifurcations and the chaos directly for a nonlinear system with irrational nonlinearity avoiding the conventional Taylor's expansion to retain the natural characteristics of the system. A series of transformations are proposed to convert the homoclinic orbits of the unperturbed system to the heteroclinic orbits in the new coordinate, which can be transformed back to the analytical expressions of the homoclinic orbits. Melnikov's method is employed to obtain the criteria for chaotic motion, which implies that the existence of homoclinic orbits to chaos arose from the breaking of homoclinic orbits under the perturbation of damping and external forcing. The efficiency of the criteria for chaotic motion obtained in this paper is verified via bifurcation diagrams, Lyapunov exponents, and numerical simulations. It is worthwhile noting that our study is an attempt to make a step toward the solution of the problem proposed by Cao Q J et al. (Cao Q J, Wiercigroch M, Pavlovskaia E E, Thompson J M T and Grebogi C 2008 Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 366 635).     

Forced vibrations of oscillators with a purely nonlinear power-form restoring force

Harmonically excited oscillators with non-negative real-power geometric nonlinearities and no linear term in the restoring force are considered. Perturbation approaches are developed for the cases of weak and strong nonlinearity. Frequency-amplitude equations are derived for an arbitrary value of the non-negative real power of the restoring force as well as analytical expressions for the steady-state response at the frequency of excitation. It is shown that the system response is of a softening type for the powers lower than unity and of a hardening type for the powers higher than unity. Frequency-response curves of the antisymmetric (constant force) oscillator, the restoring force of which has a zero power, are also discussed. Comparisons with numerical results are presented for confirmation of the analytical results obtained.     

On the motion of non-linear oscillators with a fractional-order restoring force and time variable parameters

An analytical approach to determine the approximate solution for the periodic motion of non-conservative oscillators with a fractional-order restoring force and slowly varying parameters is presented. The solution has the form of the first-order differential equation for the amplitude and phase of motion. The method used is based on the combination of the Krylov-Bogoliubov method with Hamilton's variational principle with the uncommutative rule for the variation of velocity. The conservative systems with slowly varying parameters are also considered. The corresponding adiabatic invariant is obtained. Two examples are given to illustrate derived theoretical results.     

Random vibration studies of an SDOF system with shape memory restoring force

Intelligent and adaptive material systems and structures have become very important in engineering applications. The basic characteristic of these systems is the ability to adapt to the environmental conditions. A new class of materials with promising applications in structural and mechanical systems is shape memory alloy (SMA). The mechanical behavior of shape memory alloys in particular shows a strong dependence on temperature. This property provides opportunities for the utilization of SMAs in actuators or energy dissipation devices. However, the behavior of systems containing shape memory components under random excitation has not yet been addressed in the literature. Such a study is important to verify the feasibility of using SMAs in structural systems. In this work a nondeterministic study of the dynamic behavior of a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) mechanical system, having a Nitinol spring as a restoring force element is presented. The SMA spring is characterized using a one-dimensional phenomenological constitutive model based on the classical Devonshire theory. Response statistics for zero mean random vibration of the SDOF under a wide range of temperature is obtained. Furthermore, nonzero mean analysis of these systems is carried out.     

Study on the current bistability and hysteresis in resonant-tunneling structures

We present a time-dependent quantum-kinetic study for the non-equilibrium electron transport properties of double-barrier resonant-tunneling devices. The approach is based on a self-consistent solution of Wigner equation and Poisson equation. We find intrinsic current fluctuations around the current turning point. These instabilities lead to three current irreversible regions, two current hystereses and one small inverse current change in the valley position of current, for the forward and backward bias sweep. The bias step applied on the device affects the width of each current irreversible regions and the current peak height of the middle region.     

Vector Preisach hysteresis modeling: Measurement, identification and application

The paper presents a Preisach model to simulate the vector hysteresis properties of ferromagnetic materials. The vector behavior has been studied using a single sheet tester with a disk-shaped specimen at low frequency. The locus of the magnetic flux density vector has been controlled by a digital measurement system. An inverse vector Preisach hysteresis model has been developed and identified by applying the measured data. Finally, the inverse model has been inserted into a finite element procedure through the fixed point technique and the reduced magnetic scalar potential formulation to simulate the measurement system. The applicability of the measurement system as well as the developed model has been proven by comparing measured and simulated results.     

异结构不确定混沌系统的同步控制与参数识别

设计了一种同步控制器和参数识别器来实现异结构不确定混沌系统的同步控制。以单模激光Lorenz系统和不确定Genesio系统为例,验证了这种控制器的有效性。根据Lyapunov稳定性理论,分步构造出Lyapunov函数,从而给出同步控制器和参数识别器的结构。仿真结果表明：利用本文提出的同步控制方案,仅用一个控制器就能使不确定Genesio系统的所有状态变量严格地跟踪Lorenz系统的混沌轨迹,而且误差变量经过短暂的时间序列以后始终平稳地趋于零,实现了异结构混沌系统的混沌同步,且不确定Genesio系统的参数全部可以得到识别。     

非线性恢复力耦合的振动系统广义同步与参数识别

对于一类非线性恢复力无法精确解析表达的简谐激励振动系统,建立了由原系统非线性恢复力激振的派生系统.证明了派生系统与原系统可以达到广义同步.派生系统可以自动与激励力频率、大小变化的原非线性振动系统保持广义同步.证明了由派生系统的广义同步,可以识别出原系统的阻尼系数、激振力幅值与频率.由Duffing系统的仿真计算结果可以看出,这种方法是有效的,而且识别精度较高. 关键词： 非线性恢复力 广义同步 混沌     

A Preisach-based hysteresis model for magnetic and ferroelectric hysteresis

In this paper we present a model for hysteretic nonlinearities with non-local memories. This model can be applied to describe hysteretic material behavior. Common applications are ferromagnetic or ferroelectric materials. Our model consists of an analytic function and a Preisach operator. We define a continuous Preisach weight function and introduce a method for the identification of the model parameters. The model parameters are customized to a set of symmetric hysteresis curves. We verify our model for a soft magnetic material, a hard magnetic material and the ferroelectric behavior of some piezoelectric material. After that, non-symmetric curves like the virgin curve are predicted very well by the model. It is especially useful, if forced magnetization or polarization, that appears beyond technical saturation, come into account.     

Statistical damage identification of structures with frequency changes

Model updating methods based on structural vibration data have being rapidly developed and applied to detect structural damage in civil engineering. But uncertainties existing in the structural model and measured vibration data might lead to unreliable damage detection. In this paper a statistical damage identification algorithm based on frequency changes is developed to account for the effects of random noise in both the vibration data and finite element model. The structural stiffness parameters in the intact state and damaged state are, respectively, derived with a two-stage model updating process. The statistics of the parameters are estimated by the perturbation method and verified by Monte Carlo technique. The probability of damage existence is then estimated based on the probability density functions of the parameters in the two states. A higher probability statistically implies a more likelihood of damage occurrence. The presented technique is applied to detect damages in a numerical cantilever beam and a laboratory tested steel cantilever plate. The effects of using different number of modal frequencies, noise level and damage level on damage identification results are also discussed.     

Mesoscopic models for DNA stretching under force: New results and comparison with experiments

We investigate the dynamical behavior of simple networks, namely loops with an additional internal regulating connection. Continuous dynamics for mRNA and protein concentrations is compared to a Boolean model for gene activity. Using a generalized method and within a single framework, we study different continuous models and different types of regulatory functions, and establish conditions under which the system can display stable oscillations or stable fixed points. These conditions depend only on general features such as the degree of cooperativity of the regulating interactions and the logical structure of the interactions. There are no simple rules for deciding when Boolean and continuous dynamics agree with each other, but we identify several relevant criteria.