Effects of a piezoelectric based nonlinear energy sink on the behavior of an electromechanically coupled beam

Abstract

Various researchers have investigated the behavior of a linear oscillator weakly coupled to a nonlinear mechanical attachment that has essential stiffness nonlinearity. Under certain conditions, the essentially nonlinear attachment can act as a nonlinear energy sink (NES) and the irreversible transfer of vibration energy from a main structure to the nonlinear attachment is observed. Another characteristic of an essentially nonlinear attachment is the nonexistence of a resonance frequency. Therefore, nonlinear energy sinks have increased robustness against detuning. While mechanical nonlinear attachments are usually linked to a host structure by nonlinear mechanical elements, linear coupling (piezoelectric transduction) is observed in piezoelectric based nonlinear energy sinks and nonlinearity can be achieved through electrical circuit design. This work presents an experimentally validated piezoelectric based nonlinear energy sink. An essentially nonlinear piezoelectric shunt circuit and its practical realization are discussed in detail. The circuit nonlinear behavior and the performance of the piezoelectric nonlinear energy sink to attenuate vibrations of a cantilever over a wide range of frequencies are experimentally validated.