An electromagnetic vibration absorber with harvesting and tuning capabilities

Abstract

This paper describes the development of an electromagnetic vibration absorber (EVA) with energy recovery and frequency tuning control capabilities. The essential component of the EVA is an electromagnetic transducer, interfacing between electrical and mechanical domains, connected to an external electrical circuit. So far, the use of electromagnetic devices in vibration-control applications has been driven by energy-harvesting applications. In these works, the electromagnetic transducer acts as a damper in the mechanical domain by connecting a resistance across the terminals of the device. By emulating the resistive components, some of the power that would have been dissipated in the resistor can be converted into usable power. The use of electromagnetic devices also opens the door (i) to the synthesis of more complex networks in the electrical domain, most of them impractical or too complicated to be synthesized mechanically and (ii) to the development of frequency tuning networks. We consider the possibility of using an EVA along with a resistance emulator to give a self-powered adaptive EVA. We explore the switching in of different elements across the terminals of the electromagnetic transducer in order to be able to derive new low-powered control schemes for better vibration absorption. With the underlying goal to develop high performance, energy-efficient vibration-control devices, a small scale EVA device was tested, coupled with a virtual host structure. The results presented here demonstrate the potential for self-tuning of such a device. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.