CHARACTERISTICS OF A WIDE-BAND VIBRATION NEUTRALIZER

This paper describes the design of a wideband vibration neutralizer wh ich consists of an array of neutralizers that are all tuned to slightl y different natural frequencies, An analytical model is developed and the characteristics of the wideband neutralizer are investigated, It i s shown that the impedance of a single neutralizer is effectively smea red in the frequency domain, and if the total mass of the neutralizers in the array remains constant, then as the bandwidth increases as mor e neutralizers are added to the array, the maximum impedance decreases , For an array of neutralizers it is possible for the maximum impedanc e-bandwidth product to be greater than that of a single neutralizer, a nd this is considered to be the main advantage of the device, Simple e xpressions are derived for the maximum impedance and bandwidth of the wideband neutralizer by making some simplifying assumptions, and the a pproximations are compared with numerical simulations, Experimental re sults show that the theoretical model of the wideband neutralizer capt ures the main characteristics of the device. (C) 1997 Institute of Noi se Control Engineering. [S0736-2501(97)00305-6].