Performance of non-smooth nonlinear energy sink with descending stiffness

The traditional nonlinear energy sink (NES), i.e., a smooth and cubic NES, can cause stable higher branch of response of primary systems with increasing excitation forcing. For this reason, the traditional NES is only effective in a certain excitation range. A kind of non-smooth NES with descending stiffness is proposed for expanding this effective range. The non-smooth NES has a higher cubic nonlinear stiffness in the initial range, and the stiffness is reduced as its amplitude exceeds the initial range. The governing equation of motion for a linear primary oscillator attached to the non-smooth NES is obtained in the case of harmonic excitation. The complexification-averaging method is used to obtain the steady-state equation of the system. A least square-based program with the help of a Runge–Kutta-based program is used to analyze the dynamic behaviors of the system. The results demonstrate that the non-smooth NES can eliminate the stable higher branch, therefore expanding the effective excitation range, until the excitation amplitude increases to a very high level. The influences of the piecewise boundary and the stiffness of the secondary stage of the non-smooth NES on the vibration absorption performance are investigated, and the drawbacks of this NES design are discussed. Finally, a structural design based on the theoretical results of the non-smooth NES is proposed, which is composed of permanent magnets, a smooth and discontinuous oscillator and linear springs.