Performances of dynamic vibration absorbers for beams subjected to moving loads

The goal of this work is a general assessment regarding the performances of linear and nonlinear dynamic vibration absorbers (DVAs) applied to the specific problem of moving loads or vehicles. The problem consists of a simply supported linear Euler–Bernoulli beam excited with a moving load/vehicle; a DVA is connected to the beam in order to reduce the vibrations. The moving vehicle is modeled by a single degree of freedom mass spring system. The partial differential equations governing the beam dynamics is reduced to a set of ordinary differential equations by means of the Bubnov–Galerkin method. A parametric analysis is carried out to find the optimal parameters of the DVA that minimize the maximum vibration amplitude of the beam. For the case of a moving vehicle, the energy absorbed by the DVA is evaluated. Comparisons among the performances of different types of linear and DVAs are carried out. The goal is to clarify if the use of nonlinearities in the DVAs can effectively improve their performances. The study shows that the most effective type of DVA for the test cases considered is the piecewise linear elastic restoring force.