Nonlinear Energy Sink for Whole-Spacecraft Vibration Reduction

A nonlinear energy sink (NES) approach is proposed for whole-spacecraft vibration reduction. Frequency sweeping tests are conducted on a scaled whole-spacecraft structure without or with a NES attached. The experimental transmissibility results demonstrate the significant reduction of the whole-spacecraft structure vibration over a broad spectrum of excitation frequency. The NES attachment hardly changes the natural frequencies of the structure. A finite element model is developed, and the model is verified by the experimental results. A two degrees-of-freedom (DOF) equivalent model of the scaled whole-spacecraft is proposed with the two same natural frequencies as those obtained via the finite element model. The experiment, the finite element model, and the equivalent model predict the same trends that the NES vibration reduction performance becomes better for the increasing NES mass, the increasing NES viscous damping, and the decreasing nonlinear stiffness. The energy absorption measure and the energy transition measure calculated based on the equivalent model reveals that an appropriately designed NES can efficiently absorb and dissipate broadband-frequency energy via nonlinear beats, irreversible targeted energy transfer (TET), or both for different parameters.