Analytical and Experimental Evaluation of an Air Damped Dynamic Vibration Absorber: Design Optimizations of the Three-Element Type Model

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a dynamic vibration absorber (DVA) with an air damper consisting of a piston and a cylinder. First, it will be shown that the air damper can conveniently be represented by the Maxwell model where a spring element and a dashpot are connected in series. The air damper has no ability to return the piston to its original position. For this reason, it is necessary for the piston to be supported by a spring which is placed in parallel with the damper. The air damped DVA can then be modeled by the three-element model. Many studies have been done on the Voigt type of DVA, and the accurate expressions of optimum tuning and damping parameters have already been derived by Hahnkamm and Brock et al. However, only a few papers have been published on the three-element type of DVA, and reliable expressions for it have not been derived until now. Therefore, we began our work by trying to derive expressions for optimum parameters of the three-element type of DVA. It was clear that the optimized three-element type of DVA is superior to the conventional Voigt type of DVA. The optimum parameters which we obtained from our expressions were tested on a vibratory model. The experiments showed that the our expression is very useful for designing the air damped DVA.