Theoretical and Experimental Analysis on Vibration Absorber with Particle Damping

To better suppress low-frequency vibrations of flexible manipulators induced by the rotation of motors and eccentricity, a novel type of tuned particle damper (TPD) is designed by combining the advantages of classical dynamic vibration absorber (DVA) and particle dampers (PD). Compared to traditional DVAs, this TPD can reduce additional mass and effectively broaden the frequency band of the DVA. Firstly, an equivalent theoretical model is established to describe the frequency tuning principle of the designed TPD. Based on the theory of a single particle damper, the equivalent damping and stiffness of the particles are calculated through an approximate approach. Then, a three-degree-of-freedom vibration model of the manipulator system with the TPD is built, and the dynamical characteristic of the primary resonance for the coupled system are analyzed by the perturbation method. Finally, the experimental platform is set up to verify the theoretical results. A manipulator is applied to test the low-frequency vibration absorption of the designed TPD, and the vibration suppression effect is discussed both in theoretical analysis and experiments.