Vibration Control of a Structure by Switching Between Contact and Non-contact States of a MAGLEV Floator

− Verification of Vibration Control Effects under Standing Wave and White Noise Excitation −

Abstract

　This paper describes a novel method of controlling structural vibration using magnetic levitation technology. A floator is attached to the ceiling of the structure. When the floator levitates, friction with the ceiling becomes zero, and friction occurs when the floator contacts with the ceiling. By switching to the contact state when the product of the displacement and velocity of the ceiling is positive while switching to the non-contact state when the product is negative, then the vibration is suppressed by converting the vibration into heat. In this paper, the vibration suppression effects for a two-story structure model excited by standing waves and white noise are verified by experiments and simulations. The results show that the magnitude is reduced by placing the floator in the antinode of the vibration mode and switching with the mode frequency. Moreover, it is suggested that the reduction effect varies depending on the normal force at the contact point and optimal values exist.