A Digital Absorber for Nonlinear Vibration Mitigation

In this study, a digital impedance is used to realize both a linear and a nonlinear piezoelectric tuned vibration absorber in order to mitigate the vibrations of a nonlinear structure. The digital processing unit enables the synthesis of impedances with arbitrary functional forms, thereby easing the implementation of nonlinear absorbers. The superior performance of the nonlinear absorber over its linear counterpart is demonstrated experimentally. Various nonlinear functional forms are also tested in the absorber and illustrate the relevance of the principle of similarity (i.e. the same nonlinear functional form as that in the host structure should be used in the absorber).