Experimental investigation of targeted energy transfers in strongly and nonlinearly coupled oscillators

Abstract

Our focus in this study is on experimental investigation of the transient dynamics of an impulsively loaded linear oscillator coupled to a lightweight nonlinear energy sink. It is shown that this seemingly simple system exhibits complicated dynamics, including nonlinear beating phenomena and resonance captures. It is also demonstrated that, by facilitating targeted energy transfers to the nonlinear energy sink, a significant portion of the total input energy can be absorbed and dissipated in this oscillator.