Vertical vibration control using nonlinear energy sink with inertial amplifier

To reduce additional mass, this work proposes a nonlinear energy sink (NES) with an inertial amplifier (NES-IA) to control the vertical vibration of the objects under harmonic and shock excitations. Moreover, this paper constructs pure nonlinear stiffness without neglecting the gravity effect of the oscillator. Both analytical and numerical methods are used to evaluate the performance of the NES-IA. The research findings indicate that even if the actual mass is 1% of the main oscillator, the NES-IA with proper inertia angles and mass distribution ratios can still effectively attenuate the steady-state and transient responses of the main oscillator. Nonlinear stiffness and damping also have important effects. Due to strongly nonlinear factors, the coupled system may exhibit higher branch responses under harmonic excitation. In shock excitation environment, the NES-IA with a large dynamic mass can trigger energy capture of both main resonance and high-frequency resonance. Furthermore, the comparison with the traditional NES also confirms the advantages of the NES-IA in overcoming mass dependence.