This study presents the practical realization of a digital vibration absorber that, owing to the flexibility provided by the digital unit, synthesizes linear and nonlinear shunt circuits. The absorber, composed of a microprocessor and a current source, is connected to the host structure with piezoelectric patches. The performance of both circuits is compared experimentally for a nonlinear host structure. The superiority of a properly-tuned nonlinear absorber over its linear counterpart is validated, but the limits of the nonlinear absorber are also explored. Moreover, the accuracy of the tuning procedure and formulas is assessed through experimental parametric studies.

In this study, a digital impedance is used to realize both a linear and a nonlinear piezoelectric tuned vibration absorber in order to mitigate the vibrations of a nonlinear structure. The digital processing unit enables the synthesis of impedances with arbitrary functional forms, thereby easing the implementation of nonlinear absorbers. The superior performance of the nonlinear absorber over its linear counterpart is demonstrated experimentally. Various nonlinear functional forms are also tested in the absorber and illustrate the relevance of the principle of similarity (i.e. the same nonlinear functional form as that in the host structure should be used in the absorber).

This paper presents a novel arrangement of a current blocking shunt circuit for the mitigation of multiple structural resonances. The number of required electrical components is reduced compared to the previous versions of this circuit proposed in the literature. This paper also proposes a tuning methodology for the electrical parameters of this circuit based on the evaluation of the electromechanical coupling between the electrical circuit and the structure. Effective mitigation performance can be expected with little knowledge of the host structure. A comparison with the solutions in the literature demonstrates the efficiency of the proposed approach.