A Hybrid Electromechanical Analog Computer Technique for Optimizing Vibration Systems

A simple and efficient real-time simulation method is presented for investigating certain classes of vibration problems by employing a hybrid electro-mechanical analog computer. This approach combines the efficiency of electric-analog techniques with the advantages of using actual mechanical components to generate “genuine” functions that are not known or not well defined analytically. The response of a two-deg-of-freedom system equipped with an impact damper was investigated by using this approach and the effects of mode shape, frequency ratio, mass ratio, coefficient of restitution, and damper clearance ratio on the response of the system were determined. This simulation method, which is useful in automated design processes, was used to determine the optimum design parameters of the impact damper.