Enhancing the dynamic range of targeted energy transfer in acoustics using several nonlinear membrane absorbers

In order to enhance the robustness and the energy range of efficiency of targeted energy transfer (TET) phenomena in acoustics, we discuss in this paper about the use of multiple nonlinear membrane absorbers (called nonlinear energy sinks or NES) placed in parallel. We show this way, mainly thanks to an experimental set-up with two membranes, that the different absorbers have additional effects that extend the efficiency and the possibilities of observation of TET. More precisely, we present the different behavior of the system under sinusoidal forcing and free oscillations, characterizing the phenomena for all input energies. The frequency responses are also presented, showing successive clipping of the original resonance peak of the system, and strongly modulated regimes (SMR). A model is finally used to generalize these results to more than two NES and to simulate the case of several very similar membranes in parallel which shows how to extend the existence zone of TET. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.