Drive systems may experience torsional vibrations due to various kinds of excitation mechanisms. In many engineering systems, however, such vibrations may have a negative impact on the performance and must be avoided or reduced to an acceptable level by all means. Self-excited vibrations are especially unwanted, since they may grow rapidly and not only degrade the performance but even damage machinery. In this contribution it is suggested to employ parametric stiffness excitation to suppress self-excited vibrations. In the first part of the article we study the basic energy transfer mechanism that is initiated by parametric excitation, and some general conclusions are drawn. In the second part, a hypothetic drivetrain, consisting of an electrical motor, a drive shaft and working rolls is investigated. A self-excitation mechanism is assumed to destabilize the drive system. Parametric excitation is introduced via the speed control of the electrical drive, and the capability of stabilizing the system by this measure is investigated. It is shown that the damping available in the system can be used much more effectively if parametric stiffness excitation is employed.
Parametric excitation based bipedal walking: Control method and optimization