Design of Vibration Absorbers for Step Motions and Step Disturbances

Abstract

Abstract Mechanical systems with flexible dynamics often suffer from vibration induced by changes in the reference command or from external disturbances. The technique of adding a secondary oscillatory system, called a vibration absorber, has proven useful at eliminating vibrations from external disturbances and rotational imbalances. Traditionally, vibration absorbers have been designed for systems subject to sinusoidal or random excitations. Here the applicability of vibration absorbers to systems with step changes in the reference command or similar disturbances is studied. The absorber can be designed with a weighting on peak overshoot and settling time, with the possibility of a nearly 90% improvement in settling time. The performance of this new absorber is compared with previously proposed vibration absorbers.