TECHNOLOGY & PATENTS:

Vibration Control by Confinement (VCC)

Energy Flow Control (EFC)

USA and International Patents

We specialize in noise reduction, vibration control, vibration measurement and vibration analysis by implementing our patented vibration technology.

Vibration Control by Confinement (VCC)

The VCC (Vibration Control by Confinement) approach to noise and vibration control and suppression problems is a groundbreaking technique that fundamentally changes how industry addresses the negative effects of excess noise and vibration energies. The VCC technology may be used to enhance quality of life, improve performance of consumer and industrial products, extend useful life of machinery and structures, and reduce the cost associated with the implementation of active control and smart technologies.

Contrary to the current conventional passive and active vibration control approaches that are applied in time and/or frequency domains, our VCC method utilizes those domains plus the space domain in which spatial distribution of vibration energy is controlled. In other words, we control the flow of power by directing vibration energy away from the sensitive areas of the system. We have shown that if one can control and/or trap the vibration energy away from areas that are mission/performance/safety sensitive, then the excess energy can be more effectively removed. In some instances, the energy may remain in the trapped area if it does not affect the performance of the system. In other cases, the trapped energy can be removed more efficiently than conventional passive and/or active methods.

The QRDC team has shown profound performance improvements by conventional vibrations control techniques when combined with VCC. For instance, we have demonstrated a 30% to 50% improvement in the performance of Constrained Layer Damping (CLD) when combined with VCC. We have also shown 80% to 98% improvement when conventional passive or active control techniques are enhanced with VCC. If VCC is applied as a stand-alone technique, it has unparalleled results.

The picture to the right demonstrates the VCC approach. The figure displays the basic process of what we refer to as the "Energy Steering and Shoveling Device." This process takes place when we implement our smart energy-based vibration control technique. The key to our technique is that the excess energy is taken from the critical areas (sensitive interfaces) or critical modes and placed in the non-critical areas (non-sensitive interfaces) or non-critical modes. In doing so, some of the energy is also dissipated in various forms. Another way of looking at our energy managing concept is that we provide certain conditions in the structure so that it redirects its vibration energy from one place to another and from one mode to another mode. Our main contribution is the development of a smart structure which performs this steering and shoveling of energy by design, in a systematic manner, and most importantly, by controllable means. When energy management is induced, vibration energy is confined to a limited region within a structure. Consequently, the vibration energy injected into a structure by an external disturbance cannot randomly propagate away from its initial contact point with the structure but is directed to be confined, diverted, or trapped to selected regions.

One of the questions addressed by the VCC technology is whether it is possible to attenuate vibrations of the selected critical regions of a vibrating system to acceptable levels faster than its non-critical regions. Here, a critical region or a critical mode is defined with respect to a set of mission, safety, and performance criterion given in an application. Based on the VCC-based smart structure concepts with smart energy managing features, we will achieve significant noise and vibration reduction with a smaller amount of input energy than that consumed by commonly practiced controllers, thus enabling current and future actuators to perform more efficiently and effectively. Furthermore, our approach will result in a significantly less complex control system with a reduced cost when compared with current active vibration control systems.

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