Experimental application of a vibration absorber in structural vibration reduction using tunable fluid mass driven by micropump

A new design of tuned mass damper was proposed in this study to reduce the structural vibration of a machine platform subjected to varying excitation frequency, e.g. disturbance from the unbalance mass of motor in different rotational speeds. The absorber mass was changed by pumping of fluid between the liquid chambers of the vibration absorber. With the stiffness remained unchanged, the absorber's natural frequency could be tuned accordingly. Thus, reduction in machine vibration could be obtained by tuning the natural frequency of the absorber according to the frequency of external harmonic disturbance. Firstly, the variations of natural frequency and damping ratio of the absorber with different tuned masses were measured experimentally. The natural frequency results showed that the adjustable ranges for the first two modes could all reach more than 30%. Then, the absorber was installed on a machine platform and its performance was investigated under external disturbance at the natural frequency of the platform. It was found that, due to the effect of damping increase originated from the fluid sloshing inside liquid chamber, the vibration reduction effect from the absorber was limited. To improve this situation, we added a horizontal separation panel inside the liquid chambers, and the experimental results showed that the liquid sloshing was alleviated, and effectively reduced the damping ratio of absorber. Thus, the system became more stable and the control efficiency was effectively improved.