Free Response of a Rotational Nonlinear Energy Sink: Complete Dissipation of Initial Energy for Small Initial Rectilinear Displacements

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Abstract For two combinations of a dimensionless rotational damping parameter and a dimensionless inertial coupling parameter, we consider free response of a rectilinearly vibrating linearly sprung primary mass inertially coupled to damped rotation of a second mass, for which Gendelman et al. (2012, “Dynamics of an Eccentric Rotational Nonlinear Energy Sink,” ASME J. Appl. Mech. 79(1), 011012) developed equations of motion in the context of a rotational nonlinear energy sink (NES) with no direct damping of the rectilinear motion. For dimensionless initial rectilinear displacements comparable with those considered by Gendelman et al., we identify a region in the motionless projection of the initial condition space (i.e., for zero values of the initial rectilinear and rotational velocities) in which every initial condition leads to a previously unrecognized zero-energy solution, with all initial energy dissipated by rotation. We also show that the long-time nonrotating, rectilinear solutions of the type found by Gendelman et al. are (orbitally) stable only in limited ranges of amplitude. Finally, we show how direct viscous damping of rectilinear motion of the primary mass affects dissipation, and that results with no direct rectilinear dissipation provide excellent guidance for performance when direct rectilinear dissipation occurs. Some applications are discussed.