Experimental and theoretical investigation on dynamic properties of tuned particle damper

• We present a new passive vibration control device—tuned particle damper (TPD).
• TPD׳s good performance is validated by experimental results.
• TPD improves the damping performance of particle damper at low vibration acceleration.
• TPD enhance the damping performance of particle damper.
• A 2-DOF model is proposed to approach the nonlinear behavior of particle dampers.

Aiming at solving the ineffectiveness of conventional particle damper (PD) at vibration acceleration less than the acceleration of gravity (1g) in vertical vibration, based on tuned mass damper and particle damper, a new type of damper, tuned particle damper (TPD), is introduced and tested in this work. The TPD can work as a conventional tuned mass damper as well as a particle damper. Due to the vibration of the TPD is amplified because of its vibration absorber function, the particles in the TPD can be easily driven into a state in which the acceleration is higher than 1g even though the master structure׳s acceleration is much lower than 1g. As well known, when the acceleration of a particle damper is less than 1g, the particles will behave like a lump of mass and provide no damping to the system. Therefore, the TPD might find a solution for the particle damper to function under small vibration acceleration. When the master structure׳s acceleration is higher than 1g, the damping from the TPD can be enhanced even more. In addition, the TPD׳s particle damping does not depend on the relative velocity between the master structure and absorber, but on the acceleration of the absorber only. Unlike the viscous damping in tuned mass damper, heavy particle damping will not affect the TPD׳s main dynamic properties as a vibration absorber. Furthermore, a 2-Degree-Of-Freedom (2-DOF) model was firstly developed to approximate the nonlinear behavior of the PD. The model prediction is consistent with the measured experimental results. This 2-DOF model can also be applied to simplifying the conventional PDs installed on any structures.