Summary
A nonlinear energy sink (NES) is a mechanical vibration absorber with mass and nonlinear stiffness, typically a cubic hardening spring. This nonlinear stiffness increases the operational bandwidth of the NES compared to linear vibration absorbers. This work presents and experimentally implements the concept of the NES as an electronic shunt for piezoelectric transducers to damp mechanical vibrations. As an analog to the mechanical NES, a cubic nonlinearity is realized by a cubic nonlinear voltage source. A frequency response is derived through the harmonic balancing technique. A saturation of the vibration amplitude of the host system is discovered, and there is a quasi-periodic energy exchange between the mechanical and electrical domains. This behavior and the vibration control performance are experimentally verified with a cantilever beam with bonded piezoelectric patches. The electronic nonlinearity is made with an analog multiplier.
