Confirmation of damping performance of switched mass damper by experiment

(When mass switching pattern is reversed)

Abstract

The authors proposed a damping device called switched mass damper．In the switched mass damper，a light mass m_a is attached to the mass m of the primary system through a spring and a dashpot，and another mass m_b is connected to or disconnected from the light mass m_a using a friction clutch depending on the displacement of the light mass m_a. In the previous reports，the authors showed that the switched mass damper has good damping performance for the mass switching pattern in which m_b is disconnected when the displacement of m_a becomes smaller than a given threshold and m_b is connected when the displacement of m_a becomes larger than the threshold. With further investigation, it has been found that reversing the mass switching pattern has possibility to increase the damping performance. In this report, first, damping performance for the reversed mass switching pattern is studied in detail through numerical simulation by examining the effect of each parameter of the switched mass damper on damping performance. Then, the result is confirmed by experiment.