A tuned vibration absorber constituted of shape memory alloy wires for vibration reduction of platform structures: design and implementation

Machinery can suffer from mechanical vibrations since resonance may be generated from time-varying external excitations under different operation conditions. These detrimental vibrations may significantly influence the device's performance, effectiveness and reliability in operation. In this paper, an innovative, simple and high-efficiency tuned vibration absorber (TVA) consisting of shape memory alloy (SMA) wires, which is referred to a wire-type tuned vibration absorber (WTVA), is proposed to reduce the induced vibration. Experiments are carried out using a six-degree-of-freedom platform which is designed to simulate the frame of precision machinery in practical applications. With the equivalent stiffness of SMA wires adjusted by the controlled electric current, the frequency tunability of WTVA can be achieved. When the natural frequency of WTVA tuned in with the disturbance frequency, the experimental results demonstrate that the efficiency in vibration reduction of the platform is drastically increased even with considerable weight difference between WTVA and the platform. Moreover, the tunable frequency span also increases greatly due to the new design of WTVA and the material characteristics of SMA wires.