Optimization of a hybrid vibration absorber for vibration control of structures under random force excitation

A recently reported design of a hybrid vibration absorber (HVA) which is optimized to suppress resonant vibration of a single degree-of-freedom (SDOF) system is re-optimized for suppressing wide frequency band vibration of the SDOF system under stationary random force excitation. The proposed HVA makes use of the feedback signals from the displacement and velocity of the absorber mass for minimizing the vibration response of the dynamic structure based on the H2 optimization criterion. The objective of the optimal design is to minimize the mean square vibration amplitude of a dynamic structure under a wideband excitation, i.e., the total area under the vibration response spectrum is minimized in this criterion. One of the inherent limitations of the traditional passive vibration absorber is that its vibration suppression is low if the mass ratio between the absorber mass and the mass of the primary structure is low. The active element of the proposed HVA helps further reduce the vibration of the controlled structure and it can provide significant vibration absorption performance even at a low mass ratio. Both the passive and active elements are optimized together for the minimization of the mean square vibration amplitude of the primary system. The proposed HVA are tested on a SDOF system and continuous vibrating structures with comparisons to the traditional passive vibration absorber.