 Passive methods of vibration control involves suppressing the

vibrations using devices which do not require external power

source. For example, Dynamic Vibration Absorber (DVA), Vibration
Isolation.
Advantages:
 Robust
 Cost effective
 Simple construction

Limitations:
 Significant modifications to be done to original
structure/system in form of stiffners, dampers or extra
mechanical appendage.
 Requires extra space.
 Adds weight to the structure/system.
 Designed to operate under specific types of disturbances.
 Active methods of vibration control employs a
closed loop control system to suppress the
vibrations of structure/system by applying Actuator
necessary control force using one or more k
actuators. F
 The nature of control force is determined by the
controller which operates on certain designed
control law. Controller m
x
 The control law uses the feedback of the system
response with the help of one or more sensors
mounted at different locations.
 The control law is so formulated that it essentially Sensor
modifies the effective mass, damping and
stiffness of vibrating structure/system by
electronic means.
 System Parameters are modified in a desirable
and frequency dependent fashion without
violating weight and space constraints.
Advantages:
 Effectiveness over broader frequency ranges within capacity
of actuator.
 Relative insensitiveness to operating conditions.
 Greater flexibility of control objectives.

Limitations:
 Costly
 Works only within frequency bandwidth of controller
 Susceptible to instability if not properly designed
 Requires external power source.
 In case of power failure the control loop stops working.
 Hybrid vibration control systems combines the advantages of active as
well as passive control systems.
 When active control loop fails the passive control provides provides
necessary support.
 There exists diverse semi-active vibration control methods that operate
on modifying and modulating the stiffness/damping characteristics of
passive vibration controls devices in real time.
 They consume less power and are driven by on board power sources.
 Ex: variable orifice dampers, smart fluid damper (Magneto-rheological
fluid)
 Semi-active control devices offers all the advantages of passive control
devices such as robustness, reliability and cost effectiveness and on the
other hand almost comparable to fully active devices performance wise.
 Feedback

Control Feedforward
Strategy
Feedback -
Feedforward
Active
Vibration Fully Active
Control
Semi-Active
Control
Devices
Hybrid

Adaptive
Collocated Non-Collocated
De-Centralized Centralized
 Control forces can be of two types – tracking force and damping force.
 Tracking force controls the global motion of the structure.
 Damping force only suppresses the motion due elastic vibrations.
 Tracking forces are significantly larger than damping forces.
 On this basis controllers are classified into low authority and high authority controllers.
 Low authority controllers only control vibrations of the systems and hence require low
capacity actuators which have almost no influence on global motion of the structure.
 Low authority controllers are generally used to control near resonance response.
 For controlling low and high frequency vibrations we require high authority controllers
which significantly modify effective stiffness of structure and the natural frequency.
 High authority controllers operate on high gain which increases the amount of control
energy.
 However, capacity of actuators will be limiting factor in case of high authority controllers.
 There are theoretically infinite DOF of a structure.
 For design it is computationally convenient to assume
low dimensional model of the real life structure.
 Therefore, while designing the controller, only first few
modes (controlled modes) are considered and higher
order modes (residual modes) are neglected.
 When the controller is executed, the higher order
modes also get affected due to control force.
 This is called control spillover.
 This poses a serious problem as it alters the
theoretically achieved control over controlled modes
and can cause the instability in one or more residual
modes.
 Whereas, observation spillover is component of
residual dynamics in the measurement vector.
 Active control systems rely entirely on external power to operate
the actuators and supply the control forces.
 In many applications, such systems require a large power source,
which makes them costly and vulnerable to power failure.
 Semi-active devices require a lot less energy than active devices;
and the energy can often be stored locally, in a battery, thus
rendering the semi-active device independent of any external
power supply.
 Another critical issue with active control is the stability robustness
with respect to sensor failure; this problem is especially difficult
when centralized controllers are used.
 Semi-active control devices are essentially passive devices where
properties (stiffness, damping,...) can be adjusted in real time.
 But they cannot input energy directly in the system being
controlled.
 Semi-active control is used in vibration control applications, for
large and medium amplitudes, (particularly vehicle suspension,
but also earthquake protection,...).
 However, in most cases, semi-active devices are designed to
operate in the “post yield” region, when the stress exceeds some
controllable threshold; this makes them inappropriate for
vibrations of small amplitude where the stress remains below the
minimum controllable threshold in the device.
 Magneto-rheological fluids exhibit very
fast switching (of the order of
millisecond) with a substantial yield
strength;
 For this reason MR fluids are used as
semi-active devices, particularly for small
and medium-size devices.
 Under the influence of magnetic field, the
particles in the fluid create columnar
structures parallel to the applied field
 These chain-like structures restrict the
flow of the fluid, requiring a minimum
shear stress for the flow to be initiated
 This phenomenon is reversible, very fast
and consumes very little energy.
 In absence of field, the rheological fluids
exhibit a Newtonian behaviour.
 Typical particle sizes are 0.1 to 10μm and
typical particle volume fractions are
between 0.1 and 0.5
 The carrier fluids are selected on the
basis of their tribology properties and
thermal stability.
 They also include additives that inhibit
sedimentation and aggregation.
 The behaviour of MR fluids is
often represented as a Bingham
plastic model with a variable
yield strength τy depending on
the applied magnetic field H.

τ - shear stress
γ - shear strain
η - viscosity of the fluid
 Below the yield stress, the
material behaves visco-
elastically.

 Bingham’s plastic model is also

a good approximation for MR
devices (with appropriate
definitions for τ, γ and η)
 The actual behaviour is more
complicated and includes
stiction and hysteresis
Valve Mode Direct Shear Mode

Squeeze Mode Pinch Mode

 MR Shock Absorber
 MR Brakes

Drum Inverted Drum T-shaped Rotor

 MR Clutches

Disk Multi-disk