Energy Pumping with Various Nonlinear Structures: Numerical Evidences

Numerical investigations are carried out on a linear structure, weakly coupled to a small nonlinear attachment. The essential nonlinearity of the attachment enables it to resonate with any of the linearized modes of the structure leading to energy pumping, i.e. passive, one-way, irreversible transfer of energy from the structure to the attachment. Different nonlinear structures (piecewise linear system, chaotic system) and efficiency of energy pumping are studied in each case in order to be able to apply it to civil engineering. As a specific application, attenuation of vibrations of a building is studied with two building models. In particular, the case of stochastic excitations is analyzed to examine if it is possible to process energy pumping when a seism occurs and an indicator of efficiency has been introduced.