The Application of Multiple Vibration Neutralizers for Vibration Control in Aircraft

A current challenge for researchers is the design and implementation of an effective vibration control method that reduces vibration transmission from vehicle structures such as aircraft. This challenge has arisen due to the modern trend of utilizing lightweight thin panels in aircraft structural design, which have the potential to contribute towards significant vibration in the structures. In order to reduce structural vibration, one of the common approaches is considering vibration neutralizer system attached to the structure. In this study, a vibration neutralizer is developed in a small scale size. The effectiveness of attached vibration neutralizers on a thin plate are investigated through experimental study. Prior to the experiment, a finite element analysis of Solidworks® and analytical modelling of Matlab® are produced in order to determine the structural dynamic response of the thin plate such as the natural frequency and mode shapes. The preliminary results of finite element analysis demonstrate that the first four natural frequency of clamped plate are 48Hz, 121Hz, 194Hz and 242Hz, and these results are in agreement with the plate’s analytical equations. However, there are slight discrepancies in the experiment result due to noise and error occurred during the set up. In the later stage, the experimental works of thin plate are performed with attached vibration neutralizer. Result shows that the attachment of vibration neutralizer produces better outcome, which is about 41% vibration reduction. It is expected that by adding more vibration neutralizer to the structure, the vibration attenuation of thin plate can be significant.