Inducing Passive Nonlinear Energy Sinks in Vibrating Systems

We study the inducement of passive nonlinear sinks in linear vibrating systems. These are substructures that absorb vibrational energy in a one-way, irreversible fashion. The systems considered are composed of strongly coupled, grounded damped linear oscillators with a strongly nonlinear attachment at the end. Applying a complex averaging technique we derive a set of modulation equations that is directly amenable to physical interpretation, and provides insight into the energy pumping phenomenon. For the case of a two DOF system we show that nonlinear energy pumping occurs when a certain frequency of envelope modulation crosses through zero; then the dynamics of the envelope modulation of the motion resemble the dynamics of a forced rigid body. For the case of an impulsively loaded multi-DOF chain with a nonlinear attachment at the end, we show that after some initial transients the response of the nonlinear attachment sets to a motion dominated by a “fast” frequency identical to the lower bound of the propagation zone of the linear chain. This feature reduces the study of energy pumping in the chain to a two DOF equivalent problem. The applications of the energy pumping phenomenon to practical engineering problems are discussed.