A ground-limited nonlinear energy sink

The nonlinear energy sink (NES) is outstanding in vibration control for the well-known character of energy targeted transmitting and resonance automatically capturing. To enhance the practicability, this paper proposes a ground-limited NES. The novel design can be encapsulated in a certain box. However, as the vibration region of NES is limited, the control efficiency of it must be considered seriously. Hence, the ground-limited NES is discussed via the analytical method, the simulation method, and especially the experiment in forced vibration. All parameters involved in this study are obtained through the parameter identification based on the experimental platform. The piecewise nonlinearity is fitted into the continuous nonlinearity by the hyperbolic tangent function. Then the harmonic balance method (HBM) is used during the analytical processing to promote the accuracy of the solution. The direct numerical method produces results to verify the analytical method together with the experimental records. The discussion on the control parameters shows that a proper limiting spring can effectively reduce the vibration of the NES while the cost of the control efficiency is small. In a word, this work provides a simple and reliable approach for restricting the NES, which is beneficial to the design of the NES and broadens the application of the NES in engineering.