Tunable vibration absorber incorporating piezoceramic sensoriactuator

A novel tunable vibration absorber (TVA) is developed for active absorption of vibrations in vibrating structures. The TVA is composed of a piezoceramic sensoriactuator suspended in a mounting frame by two flexible beams connected to axial ends of the sensoriactuator. The sensoriactuator serves to produce an axial force for tuning of the natural frequency of the TVA, to gather the signals associated with structural vibrations, and to provide a lumped damped mass for the TVA. By monitoring the sensoriactuator output signal while adjusting its input voltage, the natural frequency of the TVA is tuned to the targeted resonance frequency of a structure. In this paper, the design, fabrication and characterization of a 153 Hz TVA are described. Tunability of natural frequency as high as 12% and sensibility of vibrations as good as a commercial accelerometer are demonstrated.