Design and Analysis of a Geometrically Nonlinear Dynamic Vibration Absorber

The design and optimization of a nonlinear dynamic vibration absorber based on a snap-through truss geometry is investigated. The effect of absorber's parameters on primary system (PS) vibration amplitude reduction and frequency range of operation is analyzed. Within parametric analyses of the absorber, a methodology was proposed to tune the absorber's stiffness. Results show that the nonlinear vibration absorber may be substantially more effective than its linear counterpart both in terms of vibration amplitude reduction and absorption frequency range. Possible difficulties and/or limitations caused by the nonlinearity induced by the absorber are analyzed and, for the studied case, do not diminish the advantages of the nonlinear absorber (NLAbs). The effect of absorber's damping on the vibration reduction performance was also analyzed indicating that the NLAbs outperforms its linear counterpart even for higher damping levels.