Abstract

The excessive vibration if not properly controlled can cause premature fatigue failure of structural component. One effective way to attenuate vibration is to attach a tuned vibration absorber to the main structural component. Passive tuned vibration absorbers are mainly effective to attenuate vibration at specific tune frequencies and they significantly lose their effectiveness under mistuned conditions due to variation in environmental condition. The main objective of the present research study is to develop a wide-bandwidth and light-weight adaptive tuned vibration absorber (ATVA) featuring magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) to be tuned on a simply supported beam. The accelerance transfer function has been derived for both beam with and without ATVA. The effectiveness of the ATVA to control vibration at varying external excitation is then demonstrated. Proposed ATVA consists of C-Shape frame with winding coils, two MRE specimens and active mass. Isotropic MRE with 40% volume fraction has been experimentally tested and a quasi-static micromechanics and dynamic parametric model have been developed to predict the MRE’s elastic modulus at various frequency and applied magnetic field. Using MRE models and magneto-circuit analysis, the frequency bandwidth of the ATVA was analytically obtained. Finally, a multidisciplinary design optimization formulation has then been developed to minimize the mass and maximize the frequency bandwidth of an ATVA featuring magnetorheological elastomer (MRE).