The Structure-Immittance Functions for Passive Vibration Control

This paper proposes a new method, the structure-immittance approach, for designing the passive vibration absorbers consisting of inerters, dampers and springs. When considering possible configurations for these elements broadly, one of two exist approaches may be taken, either a structure-based or an immittance-based approach. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages. In this paper, the new approach combines the advantages of the existing ones. It can both consider a full set of absorber layouts together (the advantage of immittance-based approach), and restrict the complexity, topology and element values of the candidate layouts (the advantage of structure-based approach). The structural immittances covering a full set of possible networks with one damper, one inerter and at most one spring are derived and applied to a civil engineering study. This demonstrates the advantages of the new methodology in being able to identify the optimum configurations for different element constraints.