Vibration reduction of main hulls using semiactive absorbers

Abstract

A semiactive-type absorber for vibration reduction of main hull girders was investigated. The semiactive absorber system includes a moving mass, support springs, dynamic dampers, and a control system. Only a small electrical power supply is needed for control of the damper valve and the operation of the control system. In this paper, the dynamics of the ship's hull and the constraints of the semiactive absorber are described first. Then, a suboptimal operation law is derived based on the properties of the absorber and the theory of optimal vibration reduction. The numerical simulation results show that the semiactive absorber is more efficient in hull vibration reduction than the passive absorber during critical periodical excitation from the propeller. The vibration caused by multifrequency excitation can also be suppressed by the semiactive absorber. In terms of effectiveness, the semiactive absorber is almost as effective as the active absorber. In particular, the performance of the semiactive absorber is excellent in the reduction of high-frequency fluctuations.