Toward an adaptive vibration absorber using shape-memory alloys, for civil engineering applications

This article explores the capabilities of a novel adaptive vibration absorber for civil engineering structures, with regard to frequency self-tuning, based on the temperature modulation of shape-memory alloy restitution elements. This real-time temperature modulation of shape-memory alloys, through Joule effect, enables to control the elastic modulus of these elements, by inducing thermal martensitic transformations, and allows for the adaptation of the stiffness of the absorber, in order to be continuously tunable for a wide frequency range. A series of simulations are performed, using numerical models of a lively footbridge, to give an additional insight into the high potentialities of this adaptive control approach in the mitigation of vibrations in civil engineering structures.