A review of the mechanical inerter: historical context, physical realisations and nonlinear applications

Abstract

In this paper, a review of the nonlinear aspects of the mechanical inerter will be presented. The historical context goes back to the development of isolators and absorbers in the first half of the twentieth century. Both mechanical and fluid-based nonlinear inerter devices were developed in the mid- and late twentieth century. However, interest in the inerter really accelerated in the early 2000s following the work of Smith [87], who coined the term ‘inerter’ in the context of a force–current analogy between electrical and mechanical networks. Following the historical context, both fluid and mechanical inerter devices will be reviewed. Then, the application of nonlinear inerter-based isolators and absorbers is discussed. These include different types of nonlinear energy sinks, nonlinear inerter isolators and geometrically nonlinear inerter devices, many relying on concepts such as quasi-zero-stiffness springs. Finally, rocking structures with inerters attached are considered, before conclusions and some future directions for research are presented.

Impact of Using an Inerter on the Performance of Vehicle Active Suspension

“…The inerter was designed as a mechanical element with two terminals, in which the applied force at the two terminals is proportional to the relative acceleration between them, and the proportionality constant is called inertance [2]. Diff erent types of inerters, such as ball−screw, rack-and-pinion, living-hinge, hydraulic, helical fl uid, and electromagnetic, are available [3,4]. Inerters have been used in passive vibration control for different mechanical and civil engineering systems [3].…”

Performance of Numerically Optimized Tuned Mass Damper with Inerter (TMDI)

“…Some topologies aim at replacing the TMD mass, some intend to increase TMD inertial force and some target producing an additional degree of freedom whereby the primary structure with TMDI behaves as a three-degrees-of-freedom system. A profound overview of possible TMDI topologies together with closed-form solutions of the related parameters can be found in [24][25][26][27]. TMDI efficiency has been investigated for various TMDI configurations for earthquake excitation [28][29][30], wind excitation [31][32][33][34], and harmonic and random excitations of the primary structure [35][36][37].…”

Energy analysis of an inerter‐enhanced floating floor structure (In‐FFS) under seismic loads

“…Both fluid and mechanical inerter devices have been developed, and the possible applications of both linear and nonlinear inerter‐based isolators and absorbers have been reported. [ 8,9 ]…”

“…Both fluid and mechanical inerter devices have been developed, and the possible applications of both linear and nonlinear inerter-based isolators and absorbers have been reported. [8,9] Inspired by the successful applications in the field of mechanical engineering, inerters were recently introduced to enhance the vibration mitigation performances of different measures in the field of civil engineering. [10][11][12][13][14][15] Wang et al [16,17] investigated the performance benefits of building isolation systems that employ inerters.…”