• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.141-155
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• 2019

This work evaluates the influence of negative stiffness on the performances of various vehicle suspension systems, and proposes a re-centering negative stiffness device (NSD). The re-centering NSD consists of a passive magnetic negative stiffness spring and a positioning shaft with a re-centering function. The former produces negative stiffness control forces, and the latter prevents the amplification of static spring deflection. The numerical simulations reveal that negative stiffness can improve the ride comfort of a vehicle without affecting its road holding abilities for either passive or semi-active suspension systems. In general, the improvement degree of ride comfort increases as negative stiffness increases. For passive suspension system, negative stiffness brings in negative stiffness feature in the control forces, which is helpful for the ride comfort of a vehicle. For semi-active suspensions, negative stiffness can alleviate the impact of clipped damping in semi-active dampers, and thus the ride comfort of a vehicle can be improved.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.627-643
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• 2015

Negative stiffness, previously emulated by active or semi-active control for cable vibration mitigation, is realized passively using a self-contained highly compressed spring, the negative stiffness device (NSD).The NSD installed in parallel with a viscous damper (VD) in the vicinity of cable anchorage, enables increment of damper deformation during cable vibrations and hence increases the attainable cable damping. Considering the small cable displacement at the damper location, even with the weakening device, the force provided by the NSD-VD assembly is approximately linear. Complex frequency analysis has thus been conducted to evaluate the damping effect of the assembly on the cable; the displacement-dependent negative stiffness is further accounted by numerical analysis, validating the accuracy of the linear approximation for practical ranges of cable and NSD configurations. The NSD is confirmed to be a practical and cost-effective solution to improve the modal damping of a cable provided by an external damper, especially for super-long cables where the damper location is particularly limited. Moreover, mathematically, a linear negative stiffness and viscous damping assembly has proven capability to represent active or semi-active control for simplified cable vibration analysis as reported in the literature, while in these studies only the assembly located near cable anchorage has been addressed. It is of considerable interest to understand the general characteristics of a cable with the assembly relieving the location restriction, since it is quite practical to have an active controller installed at arbitrary location along the cable span such as by hanging an active tuned mass damper. In this paper the cable frequency variations and damping evolutions with respect to the arbitrary assembly location are then evaluated and compared to those of a taut cable with a viscous damper at arbitrary location, and novel frequency shifts are observed. The characterized complex frequencies presented in this paper can be used for preliminary damping effect evaluation of an adaptive passive or semi-active or active device for cable vibration control.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.359-371
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• 2018

Strong seismic events commonly cause large drift and deformation, and functionality failures in the superstructures. One way to prevent functionality failures is to design structures which are ductile and flexible through yielding when subjected to strong ground excitations. By developing forces that assist motion as "negative stiffness forces", yielding can be achieved. In this paper, we adopt the weakening and damping method to achieve a new approach to reduce all of the structural responses by further adjusting damping phase. A semi-active control system is adopted to perform the experiments. In this adaptation, negative stiffness forces through certain devices are used in weakening phase to reduce structural strength. Magneto-rheological (MR) dampers are then added to preserve stability of the structure. To adjust the voltage in MR dampers, an inverse model is employed in the control system to command MR dampers and generate the desired control forces, where a velocity control algorithm produces initial required control force. An extensive numerical study is conducted to evaluate proposed methodology by using the smart base-isolated benchmark building. Totally, nine control systems are examined to study proposed strategy. Based on the numerical results of seven earthquakes, the use of proposed strategy not only reduces base displacements, base accelerations and base shear but also leads to reduction of accelerations and inter story drifts of the superstructure. Numerical results shows that the usage of inverse model produces the desired regulated damping, thus improving the stability of the structure.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.147-155
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• 2009

Dynamic characteristics of the clearance flow between an axially oscillating rotational disk and a stationary disk were examined by experiments and computations based on a bulk flow model. In the case without pressure fluctuations at the inlet and outlet of the clearance, parallel and contracting flow paths had an effect to stabilize the axial oscillation of the rotating disk. The enlarged flow path had an effect to destabilize the axial oscillation due to the negative damping and stiffness for outward and inward flows, respectively. It was shown that the fluid force can be decomposed into the component caused by the inlet or outlet pressure fluctuation without the axial oscillation and that due to the axial oscillation without the inlet or outlet pressure fluctuation. A method to predict the stiffness and damping coefficients is proposed for general cases when the device is combined with an arbitrary flow system.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.16 no.3 s.96
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• pp.72-77
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• 1999

This paper presents 2-dimensional vibration cutting increases dynamic stiffness of tool support and improves the quality of machined surface in micro-machining. 2-dimensional vibration cutting is generated by two piezo actuators arranged orthogonally. A sine-type voltage is input to one actuator and a phase-shifted sine-type voltage is input the other. Then the vibration device actuates the tool in a 2-D elliptical motion with pulsed cutting force. It is a characteristic of 2-D vibration cutting that some negative thrust force occurs as the direction of friction on a tool rake surface is reversed. It helps not only chip flow smoothly and continuously but also cutting force be reduced. The quality of machined surface by 2-D vibration cutting depends on such parameters as vibration amplitude, frequency, cutting speed, depth of cut, etc. Compared to conventional cutting through tool path simulation and experiments under several conditions, the 2-D vibration cutting is verified to bring forth a great decrease of cutting forces, much better surface roughness and moreover much less burr.