Unimodal optimal passive electromechanical damping of elastic structures

In this paper, a new electromechanical damper is presented and used, made of a pendulum oscillating around an alternator axis and connected by a gear to the vibrating structure. In this way, the mechanical energy of the oscillating mass can be transformed into electrical energy to be dissipated when the alternator is branched on a resistor. This damping device is intrinsically non-linear, and the problem of the optimal parameters and of the best placement of this damper on the structure is studied. The optimality criterion chosen here is the maximum exponential time decay rate (ETDR) of the structural response. This criterion leads to new design formulas. The case of a bridge under construction is considered and the analytical results are compared with experimental ones, obtained on a mock-up made of a vertical tower connected to a free-end horizontal beam, to simulate the behavior of a cable-stayed bridge during the erection phase. Up to three electromechanical dampers are placed in order to study the multi-modal damping. The satisfactory agreement between the theoretical model and the experiments suggests that a multi-modal passive damping of electromagnetic type could be effective on lightweight flexible structures, when dampers are suitably placed.