Comparison of Damping Performance of Tuned Mass Dampers and Shunted Piezo Elements

In technical applications, Tuned Mass Dampers (TMDs) are commonly used to reduce the vibrations of a system subjected to disturbance excitations. An alternative to TMDs are passive shunted piezo elements. Because of the ability to transfer mechanical energy into electrical energy and vice versa, an electromechanical vibration damper can be created by connecting a suitable passive resonance circuit. In this paper, criterions for optimal performance of both mechanical and electromechanical systems are derived, and maximum damping performances are compared. Further, a method to increase the damping performance of piezo elements by adding a negative capacitance is examined. (© 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)