The Effect of Mass Ratio and Air Damper Characteristics on the Resonant Response of an Air Damped Dynamic Vibration Absorber

In this paper, it is shown that, a road vehicle 2DOF air damped quartercar suspension system can conveniently be transformed into a 2DOF air damped vibrating system representing an air damped dynamic vibration absorber (DVA) with an appropriate change in the ratio µ of the main mass and the absorber mass i.e. when mass ratio µ >> 1. Also the effect of variation of the mass ratio, air damping ratio and air spring rate ratio, on the motion transmissibility at the resonant frequency of the main mass of the DVA has been dis- cussed. It is shown that, as the air damping ratio in the absorber system increases, there is a substantial decrease in the motion transmissibility of the main mass system where the air damper has been modeled as a Maxwell type. Optimal value of the air damping ratio for the minimum motion transmissibility of the main mass of the system has been determined. An experimental setup has been designed and developed with a control system to vary air pressure in the damper in the absorber system. The motion transmissibility characteristics of the main mass system have been obtained, and the optimal value of the air damping ratio has been determined for minimum motion transmissibility of the main mass of the system