Active and Passive Vibration Damping

1Vibration Damping

1.1 Overview

Vibration control is recognized as an essential means for attenuating excessive amplitudes of oscillations, suppressing undesirable resonances, and avoiding premature fatigue failure of critical structures and structural components. The use of one form of vibration control or another in most of the newly designed structures is becoming very common in order to meet the pressing needs for large and light‐weight structures. With such vibration control systems, the strict constraints imposed on present structures can be met to ensure their effective operation as quiet and stable platforms for manufacturing, communication, observation, and transportation.

1.2 Passive, Active, and Hybrid Vibration Control

Various passive, active, and hybrid vibration control approaches have been considered over the years employing a variety of structural designs, damping materials, active control laws, actuators, and sensors. Distinct among these approaches are the passive, active, and hybrid vibration damping methods.

It is important to note here that passive damping can be very effective in damping out high frequency excitations, whereas active damping can be utilized to control low frequency vibrations as shown in Figure 1.1. For effective control over broad frequency band, hybrid damping methods are essential.

Figure 1.1 Operating range of various damping methods. ...