In this paper, we study flexural vibrations of two thin beams that are coupled through an otherwise quiescent viscous fluid. While most of the research has focused on isolated beams immersed in placid fluids, inertial and viscous hydrodynamic coupling is ubiquitous across a multitude of engineering and natural systems comprising arrays of flexible structures. In these cases, the distributed hydrodynamic loading experienced by each oscillating structure is not only related to its absolute motion but is also influenced by its relative motion with respect to the neighbouring structures. Here, we focus on linear vibrations of two identical beams for low Knudsen, Keulegan-Carpenter and squeeze numbers. Thus, we describe the fluid flow using unsteady Stokes hydrodynamics and we propose a boundary integral formulation to compute pertinent hydrodynamic functions to study the fluid effect. We validate the proposed theoretical approach through experiments on centimetre-size compliant cantilevers that are subjected to underwater base-excitation. We consider different geometric arrangements, beam interdistances and excitation frequencies to ascertain the model accuracy in terms of the relevant nondimensional parameters.

In this paper, we investigate underwater energy harvesting of a parallel array of nominally identical ionic polymer metal composites (IPMCs) subjected to low frequency base excitation in water. The IPMCs are connected in parallel and shunted with a varying resistor. We model the IPMCs as slender beams with uniform cross section undergoing small oscillations in an otherwise quiescent viscous fluid. We utilize a boundary element approach to compute the hydrodynamic loading on each structure, which is due to the oscillations of the whole array. Leveraging recent findings on sensing in ionic polymer metal composites, we propose a coupled electromechanical model for predicting energy harvesting as a function of the IPMCs' impedance and the base excitation. To validate our theoretical predictions, we perform experiments on an in-house-fabricated array of five centimeter-size composites, which we characterize on a dedicated test rig. We experimentally determine the power harvested by varying the excitation frequency in the broad range 2-35 Hz and the shunting resistance from 1 to 1000 .

In this paper, we study finite amplitude bending vibrations of a slender thin beam immersed in a quiescent viscous liquid and oscillating near a solid surface. We focus on the regime of low Knudsen and squeeze numbers and moderately large Keulegan-Carpenter number, for which neither squeeze film models nor unsteady Stokes hydrodynamics are suitable to describe the flow physics. In this case, the distributed hydrodynamic loading experienced by the oscillating beam is represented by a complex-valued hydrodynamic function, which explicitly depends on the Keulegan-Carpenter number to account for convection-driven nonlinearities in the fluid-structure interaction. We conduct a parametric study on the two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics of a rigid lamina oscillating in the vicinity of a solid surface to establish a handleable semianalytical formula for the hydrodynamic function in terms of the key nondimensional parameters. We validate the proposed modeling approach through experiments on centimeter-size compliant cantilevers vibrating underwater under base excitation at varying distances from a rigid wall.

Abstract. Comfort, road holding and safety of passenger cars are mainly influenced by an appropriate design of suspension systems. Improvements of the dynamic behaviour can be achieved by implementing semi-active or active suspension systems. In these cases, the correct design of a well-performing suspension control strategy is of fundamental importance to obtain satisfying results. Operational Modal Analysis allows the experimental structural identification in those that are the real operating conditions: Moving from output-only data, leading to modal models linearised around the more interesting working points and, in the case of controlled systems, providing the needed information for the optimal design and verification of the controller performance. All these characters are needed for the experimental assessment of vehicle suspension systems. In the paper two suspension architectures are considered equipping the same car type. The former is a semi-active commercial system, the latter a novel prototypic active system. For the assessment of suspension performance, two different kinds of tests have been considered, proving ground tests on different road profiles and laboratory four poster rig tests. By OMA-processing the signals acquired in the different testing conditions and by comparing the results, it is shown how this tool can be effectively utilised to verify the operation and the performance of those systems, by only carrying out a simple, cost-effective road test.

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