Nonlinear energy sink (NES) is an appropriately designed nonlinear oscillator without positive linear stiffness. NES can suppress vibrations over a wide frequency range due to its targeted energy transfer characteristics. Thus, investigations on NES have attracted a lot of attention since a NES was proposed. Designs, analysis, and applications of NESs are still active since different configurations are needed in various practical circumstances. The present work provides a comprehensive review of state-of-the-art researches on NESs. The work begins with a survey of the generation of a NES and its important vibration control characteristics. The work highlights possible complex dynamics resulting in a NES coupled to a structure. The work also summarizes some significant design on the implements of optimal damping effects and the offsets of NES shortcomings. Then, the work details the applications of NESs in all engineering fields. The concluding remarks suggest further promising directions, such as NESs for multidirectional vibration reduction, NESs with nonlinearities beyond the cubic, potential deterioration caused by a NES, low-cost NESs, NESs for extremely low frequency range, and NESs integrated into active vibration controls. There are 383 references in the review, including some publications of the authors.

Designs, analysis, and applications of nonlinear energy sinks

Vortex-induced vibrations mitigation through a nonlinear energy sink

We investigate in detail the passive control of vortex-induced vibrations of a freely oscillating circular cylinder using a non-linear energy sink consisting of a secondary system having linear damping and an essential non-linear cubic stiffness. The loads on the cylinder are calculated using a direct numerical simulation of the incompressible flow over the cylinder using a parallel computational fluid dynamics code. A strongly coupled fluid structure control numerical model is used to determine the responses of the cylinder and the sink as well as the flow. We vary the sink parameters (mass and damping) and determine their effects on the response of the coupled system. We find multiple stable responses of the coupled system for different mass ratios and damping coefficient of the sink, depending on the initial conditions.

Effects of a non-linear energy sink (NES) on vortex-induced vibrations of a circular cylinder

The effects of nonlinear energy sink (NES) on vibration suppression of a simply supported beam are investigated in this work. The slow flow equations of the system are derived by using complexification–averaging method, and the validity of the derivation is verified. By comparing the vibration absorption of single and parallel NESs of equal mass, it is found that the latter exhibits superior vibration absorption performance. In addition, the parallel NES can eliminate higher branch responses of the system under the harmonic load. Furthermore, it is found that parallel NES can eliminate the higher branches of the system more effectively by tuning nonlinear stiffness and damping. Moreover, the thermal effect on natural frequencies of the simply supported beam is considered, and the influences of the parallel NES’s parameters on the energy dissipation rate under shock load are investigated. The nonlinear responses of the simply supported beam with parallel NES under harmonic load and with the increase of temperature are described.

Elad Domany

Papers

Reduced-order model for laminar vortex-induced vibration of a rigid circular cylinder with an internal nonlinear absorber