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Mechanical vibrations in lightweight structures remain a persistent challenge, often leading to noise, fatigue, and performance degradation in aerospace, automotive, and industrial applications. Recent advances in phononic crystals and perforated metaplates have shown that periodic cavities or uniformly distributed perforations can generate bandgaps and reduce vibration transmission. However, most existing designs rely on identical and regularly spaced holes, which limits the ability to precisely tune the attenuation response. This work introduces a novel design and optimization framework for finite perforated cellular panels, in which each perforation diameter is individually optimized to achieve targeted vibration suppression within specific frequency ranges. Finite element models were coupled with a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm to minimize the frequency response function (FRF) amplitude. Aluminum panels with 16 and 25 perforations were optimized, fabricated via CNC machining, and experimentally validated using impact hammer tests. The optimized designs achieved up to 90% reduction in vibrational amplitude within the target frequency bands, demonstrating strong agreement between numerical predictions and experimental results. These results highlight the potential of non-periodic, locally optimized perforation patterns as a practical and scalable approach for vibration control in finite structural components.

To efficiently attenuate flexural waves at low-frequency range (0–100 Hz) in the complex vibration environment, a metamaterial plate consists of steel, magnetorheological elastomer and cement-based piezoelectric composite (CPC) is proposed in this paper. The propagation of flexural waves in binary and ternary periodic material plate are studied by the plane wave expansion method (PWE) which combined with the Mindlin plate theory, and the frequency response functions are calculated by the finite element method (FEM). The dispersion curves under open and shorted electrical boundary conditions are considered, the regulation effect of bias magnetic field on the band gap is explored. The results show that material and geometric parameters significantly influence the band gap. Although the effect of electrical boundary conditions on the band gap can be ignored, the introduction of the CPC widens the width of band gap by 130%. The location and width of the band gap can be adjusted by varying magnetic field intensity, as magnetic field intensity H intensifies from 0A/m to 8×105A/m, the band gap has a 25% increase. The proposed metamaterial plate has certain stiffness and strength, and it is suitable to be used in engineering. The results may provide an alternative avenue for understanding and optimizing the design of metamaterial plates with wide tunable band gaps.

Optimal sensor placement (OSP) is one of the essential factors affecting the accuracy of health management, particularly in health monitoring driven by mode information. A novel OSP method based on active learning is proposed to effectively capture modal shapes for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM). First, the optimal Latin Hypercube Sampling is carried out to generate initial sensor positions, and the corresponding amplitudes of modal shapes at these positions are obtained by a frequency response function. Subsequently, data-driven models are built to be treated as virtual sensors to reconstruct the integrated modal shapes of the structure, and the accuracies of the results are calculated. Then, considering the distribution of the input sensor position, an improved reliability-based expectation improvement function (IREIF2) is applied to find the optimal sensor positions by optimizing the parameters of the probability density function in IREIF2. Finally, the position and response of the optimal sensor are used to update the data-driven models for more accurate modal shape reconstruction, and the accuracies are calculated to determine whether the OSP process continues. Once the accuracies meet the desired criteria, the optimal sensor positions are also obtained. The superiority of the proposed method is verified by the comparisons with other OSP methods, and different case studies are also used to prove the proposed method can realize OSP for SHM.

In structural dynamics a structure’s dynamic properties are often determined from its frequency-response functions (FRFs). Commonly, FRFs are determined by measuring a structure’s response while it is subjected to controlled excitation. Impact excitation performed by hand is a popular way to perform this step, as it enables rapid FRF acquisition for each individual excitation location. On the other hand, the precise location of impacts performed by hand is difficult to estimate and relies mainly on the experimentalist’s skills. Furthermore, deviations in the impact’s location and direction affect the FRFs across the entire frequency range. This paper proposes the use of ArUco markers for an impact-pose estimation for the use in FRF acquisition campaign. The approach relies on two dodecahedrons with markers on each face, one mounted on the impact hammer and another at a known location on the structure. An experimental setup with an analog trigger is suggested, recording an image at the exact time of the impact. A camera with a fixed aperture is used to capture the images, from which the impact pose is estimated in the structure’s coordinate system. Finally, a procedure to compensate for the location error is presented. This relies on the linear dependency of the FRFs in relation to the impact offset.

The vibrational characteristics of the Hybrid III and NOCSAE headforms are not well understood. It is hypothesized that they may perform differently in certain loading environments due to their structural differences; their frequency responses may differ depending on the impact characteristics. Short-duration impacts excite a wider range of headform frequencies than longer-duration (padded) impacts. While headforms generally perform similarly during padded head impacts where resonant frequencies are avoided, excitation of resonant frequencies during short-duration impacts can result in differences in kinematic measurements between headforms for the matched impacts. This study aimed to identify the natural frequencies of each headform through experimental modal analysis techniques. An impulse hammer was used to excite various locations on both the Hybrid III and NOCSAE headforms. The resulting frequency response functions were analyzed to determine the first natural frequencies. The average first natural frequency of the NOCSAE headform was 812 Hz. The Hybrid III headform did not exhibit any natural frequencies below 1000 Hz. Comparisons of our results with previous studies of the human head suggest that the NOCSAE headform’s vibrational response aligns more closely with that of the human head, as it exhibits lower natural frequencies. This insight is particularly relevant for assessing head injury risk in short-duration impact scenarios, where resonant frequencies can influence the injury outcome.

The study focuses on harnessing recycled materials to create sustainable and efficient composites, addressing both environmental issues related to waste management and industrial requirements for materials with improved vibration damping properties. The research involves the analysis of the physico-mechanical properties of the obtained composites and the evaluation of their performance in practical applications. Composite materials were tested in terms of their tensile strength and vibration damping capabilities, considering stress–strain diagrams, vibration amplitudes, frequency response functions (FRFs) and vibration modes. The research results have shown that by adding PVC and FA to the rubber-based matrix composition, the stiffness decreases and elasticity increases. The use of FA in the structure of composite materials causes an increase in the vibration damping possibilities due to the fact that it contributes to the chemical properties of the analyzed composite materials. Additionally, the use of PVC results in increased material elasticity, as evidenced by the higher damping factor compared to materials containing only rubber. Simultaneously, the addition of FA and PVC in specific proportions (60 phr) can lead to a decrease in stiffness and a greater increase in the damping factor. The incorporation of PVC and fly ash (FA) particles into rubber-based matrix composites reduces their stiffness and increases their elasticity. These effects are due to the fact that FA particles behave as extensions of chemical bonds during traction, which contributes to the increase in yield elongation. In addition, the use of flexible PVC increases the elasticity of the material, which is evidenced by the increase in the damping factor.

Low-severity multiple damage detection relies on sensing minute deviations in the vibrational or dynamical characteristics of the structure. The problem becomes complicated when the reference vibrational profile of the healthy structure and corresponding input excitation, is unavailable as frequently experienced in real-life scenarios. Detection methods that require neither undamaged vibrational profile (baseline-free) nor excitation information (output-only) constitute state-of-art in structural health monitoring. Unfortunately, their efficacy is ultimately limited by non-ideal input excitation masking crucial attributes of system response such as resonant frequency peaks beyond first (few) natural frequency(ies) which can better resolve the issue of multiple damage detection. This study presents an improved frequency response function curvature method which is both baseline-free and output-only. It employs the cepstrum technique to eliminate 1/f decay of higher resonance peaks caused by the temporal spread of real impulse excitation. Long-pass liftering screens out the bulk of low-frequency sensor noise along with the excitation. With more visible resonant peaks, the cepstrum purified frequency response functions (regenerated frequency response functions) register finer deviation from an estimated baseline frequency response function and yield an accurate damage index profile. The simulation and experimental results on the beam show that the proposed method can successfully locate multiple damages of severity as low as 5%.

This study utilized three controlled Sitika spruce beam specimens and established a parameterized transfer-function model based on force–acceleration frequency response functions (FRFs) to characterize and reconstruct the frequency-domain modal response of beam specimens. The specimens were tested using non-contact magnetic swept-sine excitation, laser Doppler vibration measurement, and synchronous FFT analysis methods under free–free boundary conditions. In the experiment, one specimen was used for modeling and the other two specimens were used for consistency verification. Based on the measured complex FRF, a 1st–5th order modal transfer-function model was established in the frequency range of 0–1000 Hz. The experiment identified five resonance frequencies of the specimen, which were 65.0, 198.5, 370.5, 620.0, and 930.0 Hz, respectively. The model can reconstruct the measured magnitude and phase responses, with magnitude residuals within ±5 dB, resonance-peak magnitude errors of 0.03–0.73 dB, and wrapped-phase deviation around the poles of 0.20–5.08°. The Nyquist trajectory was continuous and smooth, with all poles located in the left half-plane, indicating that the model has stable pole behavior. The research results support the specimen vibration response as an approximate linear time-invariant system under small-magnitude and controlled testing conditions. The model can provide a physically interpretable and reconstructable modal-parameter expression for evaluating frequency-domain vibration responses of controlled wooden beam specimens.

In the present study, the optimization design of the cubic nonlinear damping is conducted for a floating raft isolation system, which can be simplified as a multiple degree-of-freedom system with double parallel freedom inputs. The direct relationship between the power transmissibility and cubic nonlinear damping parameters is derived by taking advantage of the output frequency response function (OFRF) approach. The design requirements are proposed in order to achieve low resonant peak values, low power transmissibility over the high frequency range. The detailed step-by-step design process of the floating raft isolation system applied in a practical vessel is provided. A polynomial function, in terms of the required frequency range, is developed and validated from the simulation data. The case application indicates that the design method determined by the OFRF approach can effectively realize the design requirements of a floating raft isolation system, which can deal with the relationship of the power transmissibility and nonlinear damping parameters.

The present paper discusses a new approach for the experimental determination of modal parameters (resonant frequencies, modal shapes and damping coefficients) based on measured displacement values, using the non-contact optical method of digital image correlation (DIC). The output is a newly developed application module that, based on a three-dimensional displacement matrix from the experimental measurement results, can construct a frequency response function (FRF) for the purpose of experimental and operational modal analysis. From this frequency response function, the modal parameters of interest are able to be determined. The application module has been designed for practical use in Scilab 6.1.0, and its code interfaces directly with the ISTRA4D high-speed camera software. The module was built on measurements of a steel plate excited by an impact hammer to simulate experimental modal analysis. Verification of the correctness of the computational algorithm or the obtained modal parameters of the excited sheet metal plate was performed by simulation in the numerical software Abaqus, whose modal shapes and resonant frequencies showed high agreement with the results of the newly developed application.