On the potential of the wave based method for the efficient optimisation of local vibration control treatments for structural components

Local vibration absorbers, such as tuned vibration absorbers or local active control systems, can be used to reduce the response of structural components. The optimisation of the position, the number and the properties of these absorbers, is however a problem of many unknowns. This paper studies the use of an efficient simulation technique, namely the wave based method (WBM), in order to obtain these optimal parameters. In contrast to the finite element method (FEM), where the problem is divided into a large number of small elements in which the field variable is described using simple polynomial shape functions, the WBM divides the problem into a small number of domains in which exact solutions of the governing equation are used as basis functions. This approach not only leads to a numerical efficient technique for the simulation of a system response, it also has inherent advantages over the FEM in an optimisation context. This paper studies the advantages of the WBM in a gradient based optimisation scheme and applies the proposed method for the optimisation of local resonators in order to reduce the vibrational response of a simple plate.