Exploration of nonlinearly shunted piezoelectrics as vibration absorbers

Practical realization of a nonlinearly shunted piezoelectric vibration absorber is numerically explored in this research. It is widely known that the linear resonant piezoelectric shunting strategy, acting as a tuned mass damper, is limited by the massive inductance required in low-frequency cases and sensitivity to drifts in structural frequencies. In order to overcome this limitation, a nonlinear piezoelectric shunting strategy is proposed based on the nonlinear energy sink theory. The essential idea is to passively absorb vibrational energy from the host structure through the intentional use of nonlinearity in piezoelectric shunting. The nonlinearly shunted piezoelectrics are supposed to work over a broad frequency band with a smaller inductance requirement compared with the linear resonant shunting. The nonlinearly shunted piezoelectric vibration absorber is built and applied in a cantilevered beam. Major challenges coming from the nonlinear tuning design for an effective vibration absorber exempted from high isolated response curves will be covered in this research. This numerical study is supposed to pave the way for experimental investigations that are currently in process. (paper)