Copyright © 2011 Krzysztof Kecik and Jerzy Warminski. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

This paper presents vibration analysis of an autoparametric pendulum-like mechanism subjected to harmonic excitation. To improve dynamics and control motions, a new suspension composed of a semiactive magnetorheological damper and a nonlinear spring is applied. The influence of essential parameters such as the nonlinear damping or stiffness on vibration, near the main parametric resonance region, are carried out numerically and next verified experimentally in a special experimental rig. Results show that the magnetorheological damper, together with the nonlinear spring can be efficiently used to change the dynamic behaviour of the system. Furthermore, the nonlinear elements applied in the suspension of the autoparametric system allow to reduce the unstable areas and chaotic or rotating motion of the pendulum.