Abstract
This paper presents experimental results that demonstrate the vibration suppression effectiveness of a Houde damper, a type of dynamic absorber that contains an auxiliary mass and a damping element. The damper that was developed uses an eddy current brake consisting of a pair of permanent magnets and a copper plate which acts as a conductor. A vibration test using a straight piping model was used to show that the Houde damper is effective not only in reducing small amplitude vibrations, but large amplitude vibrations as well. Analytical calculations were used to establish that the precise tuning required for effective vibration suppression using a conventional dynamic absorber (that is, a passively tuned mass damper) is not necessary for the Houde damper.
