Nonlinear dynamic analysis of an optimal particle damper

TL;DR

This paper investigates the nonlinear dynamics of a particle damper system, analyzing how granular particles influence vibration damping and exhibit regular or chaotic motion across various frequencies.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive nonlinear analysis of a particle damper, including chaos detection and the effect of excitation frequency on damping performance.

Findings

Granular system exhibits both regular and chaotic motion.

Damping effectiveness varies with excitation frequency.

Nonlinear analysis reveals complex dynamical behavior.

Abstract

We study the dynamical behavior of a single degree of freedom mechanical system with a particle damper. The particle (granular) damping was optimized for the primary system operating condition by using an appropriate gap size for a prismatic enclosure. The particles absorb the kinetic energy of the vibrating structure and convert it into heat through the inelastic collisions and friction. This results in a highly nonlinear mechanical system. Considering linear signal analysis, state space reconstruction, Poincar\'e sections and the determination of maximal Lyapunov exponents, the motion of the granular system inside the enclosure is characterized for a wide frequency range. With the excitation frequency as control parameter, either regular and chaotic motion of the granular bed are found and their influence on the damping is analyzed.