Fluid Based Inerter Designs to Enhance Vibration Suppression Systems

Mitigating unwanted vibration in mechanical structures via effective and reliable approaches is an important and difficult part of the design process. For example, a good balance between ride comfort and handling for passenger vehicles, the need to build taller and more slender buildings while maintaining good dynamic performances under wind and earthquake disturbances, and the trade off between maintaining straight running stability and reducing track wear when curving for railway vehicles, have all attracted much research from both academia and industry. In the current drive for more flexible, lightweight and more efficient structures, enhancing the capability of vibration suppression systems has become even more important. The introduction of the inerter concept has from theoretical point of view fundamentally enhanced the capability of passive vibration suppression systems. Significant theoretical performance advantages for a wide range of mechanical structures have been identified. However, when working on real applications, we face the obstacle of inadequate knowledge of the dynamic properties of physical inerter realisations. This project will establish accurate fluid based inerter models and demonstrate the potential superiority of such designs for passenger cars, tall buildings and railway vehicles through case studies developed in close collaboration with industrial project partners. The proposed work will enable the widespread uptake of fluid inerter based vibration suppression design techniques and constitute a major step towards wide spread application in multiple industrial sectors including road and rail transportation, civil engineering as well as aerospace engineering. The resulting improvements in the UK's capability for advanced design will greatly assist the high-end manufacturing industry to maintain its competitive edge.