Dynamics of structures

Nonlinear Oscillations: Exact Solutions and their Approximations

The recognition that minimizing an integral function through variational methods (as in the last chapters) leads to the second-order differential equations of Euler-Lagrange for the minimizing function made it natural for mathematicians of the eighteenth century to ask for an integral quantity whose minimization would result in Newton’s equations of motion. With such a quantity, a new principle through which the universe acts would be obtained. The belief that “something” should be minimized was in fact a long-standing conviction of natural philosophers who felt that God had constructed the universe to operate in the most efficient manner—but how that efficiency was to be assessed was subject to interpretation. However, Fermat (1657) had already invoked such a principle successfully in declaring that light travels through a medium along the path of least time of transit. Indeed, it was by recognizing that the brachistochrone should give the least time of transit for light in an appropriate medium that Johann Bernoulli “proved” that it should be a cycloid in 1697. (See Problem 1.1.) And it was Johann Bernoulli who in 1717 suggested that static equilibrium might be characterized through requiring that the work done by the external forces during a small displacement from equilibrium should vanish. This “principle of virtual work” marked a departure from other minimizing principles in that it incorporated stationarity—even local stationarity—(tacitly) in its formulation. Efforts were made by Leibniz, by Euler, and most notably, by Lagrange to define a principle of least action (kinetic energy), but it was not until the last century that a truly satisfactory principle emerged, namely, Hamilton’s principle of stationary action (c. 1835) which was foreshadowed by Poisson (1809) and polished by Jacobi (1848) and his successors into an enduring landmark of human intellect, one, moreover, which has survived transition to both relativity and quantum mechanics. (See [L], [Fu] and Problems 8.11 8.12.)

Variational Principles in Mechanics

Due to increased demands for energy and the current limitations of batteries, a future prospective technology are vibration energy harvesters that convert kinetic vibration energy into electrical energy. These energy harvesters have the potential to be used in powering small electronic devices such as measurement equipment in remote or hostile environments where batteries are not a viable option. Current limitations of vibration based energy harvesters is the total available power generated and the frequency at which they effectively collect ambient vibration sources for producing power; this paper aims to review the current techniques that are being employed to enhance the performance of these devices. These techniques have been categorised into amplification techniques, resonance tuning methods and introducing nonlinear oscillations. Before this technology can be used effectively in applications enhancing the performance of ambient vibration energy harvesters needs to be addressed.

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A review on performance enhancement techniques for ambient vibration energy harvesters

To improve the efficiency of energy harvesting, this paper presents a tri-stable energy harvesting device, which can realize inter-well oscillation at low-frequency base excitation and obtain a high harvesting efficiency by tri-stable coherence resonance. First, the model of a magnetic coupling tri-stable piezoelectric energy harvester is established and the corresponding equations are derived. The formula for the magnetic repulsion force between three magnets is given. Then, the dynamic responses of a system subject to harmonic excitation and Gaussian white noise excitation are explored by a numerical method and validated by experiments. Compared with a bi-stable energy harvester, the threshold for inter-well oscillation to occur can be moved forward to the low frequency, and the tri-stable device can create a dense high output voltage and power at the low intensity of stochastic excitation. Results show that for a definite deterministic or stochastic excitation, the system can be optimally designed such that it increases the frequency bandwidth and achieves a high energy harvesting efficiency at coherence resonance.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0964-1726/25/1/015001/pdf

Dynamics and coherence resonance of tri-stable energy harvesting system

A stochastic averaging technique for the nonlinear vibration energy harvesting system to Gaussian white noise excitation is developed to analytically evaluate the mean-square electric voltage and mean output power. By introducing the generalized harmonic transformation, the influence of the external circuit on the mechanical system is equivalent to a quasi-linear stiffness and a quasi-linear damping with energy-dependent coefficients, and then the equivalent nonlinear system with respect to the mechanical states is completely established. The Ito stochastic differential equation with respect to the mechanical energy of the equivalent nonlinear system is derived through the stochastic averaging technique. Solving the associated Fokker–Plank–Kolmogorov equation yields the stationary probability density of the mechanical states, and then the mean-square electric voltage and mean output power are analytically obtained through the approximate relation between the electric quantity and the mechanical states. The agreements between the analytical results and those from the moment method and from Monte Carlo simulations validate the effectiveness of the proposed technique.

Stochastic averaging for nonlinear vibration energy harvesting system

Semi-analytical solution of random response for nonlinear vibration energy harvesters

Random vibration with inelastic impact: equivalent nonlinearization technique

Approximately analytical procedure to evaluate random stick-slip vibration of Duffing system including dry friction

\n Arranging inerter arrays in designing metamaterials can achieve low-frequency vibration suppression even with a small configuration mass. In this work, we investigate flexural wave bandgap properties of an elastic metamaterial plate with periodic arrays of inerter-based dynamic vibration absorbers (IDVAs). By extending the plane wave expansion (PWE) method, the inertant elastic metamaterial plate is explicitly formulated in which the interactions of the attached IDVAs and the host plate are considered. Due to the additional degree-of-freedom induced by each IDVA, multiple band gaps are obtained. Along the ΓX direction, the inertant elastic metamaterial plate exhibits two locally resonant (LR) band gaps and one Bragg (BG) band gap. In contrast, along the ΓM direction, two adjacent LR band gaps are obtained. Detailed parametric analyses are conducted to investigate the relationships between the flexural wave bandgap properties and the structural inertant parameters. With a dissipative mechanism added to the IDVAs, extremely wide band gaps in different directions can be further generated. Finally, by adopting an effective added mass technique in the finite element method, displacement transmission and vibration modes of a finite inertant elastic metamaterial plate are obtained. Our investigation indicates that the proposed inertant elastic metamaterial plate has extra-wide low-frequency flexural band gaps and therefore has potential applications in engineering vibration prohibition.

Zhilong Huang

Papers

Stochastic averaging for nonlinear vibration energy harvesting system

Semi-analytical solution of random response for nonlinear vibration energy harvesters

Random vibration with inelastic impact: equivalent nonlinearization technique

Approximately analytical procedure to evaluate random stick-slip vibration of Duffing system including dry friction

An Inertant Elastic Metamaterial Plate With Extra Wide Low-Frequency Flexural Band Gaps