The Elastodynamic Response of a Class of Intelligent Machinery, Part II: Computational and Experimental Results

Abstract

This paper, together with a companion paper [1], describes a comprehensive theoretical and experimental investigation on a methodology proposed for suppressing the elastodynamic response of flexible mechanisms. This methodology involves retrofitting the original mechanism by the introduction of a microprocessor-controlled perturbational motion at one of the normally fixed ground-link joints. The orchestration of this motion will, it is hypothesized, enable the inertial loading on the flexible members to be reduced and consequently the magnitude of the elastodynamic response will also be reduced. In Part I of two companion papers, the theoretical developments are presented. Part II presents an experimental investigation of a four-bar linkage with a flexible rocker link, which was then retrofitted to provide an additional, microprocessor-controlled input. The magnitude of the midspan deflections of the retrofitted mechanism were less than those of the original mechanism over a broad range of operating speeds thereby validating the proposed methodology for this class of mechanism system.