The Group recently proposed the use of tuned-inerter-dampers drawing an analogy with the commonly used tuned-mass-damper. Current application areas being considered include:

• Landing gear shimmy; and
• Bridge cable vibration suppression.

The Group has been advocating the application of inerter combined vibration suppression devices to mechanical systems including but not limited to:

• multi-story buildings;
• railway vehicles;
• suspension bridges; and
• heavy-duty vehicles.

Research also focuses on design, testing and modelling of prototype inerter-integrated devices. A ball- screw inerter has been built at Bristol (see Figure). A set of electrically realised inerter devices, and fluid based inerter devices are currently under development by researchers.

The introduction of inerter guarantees that all positive-real frequency functions representing the device’s terminal behaviour can be realised passively by a network comprising springs, dampers and inerters. Further development of network synthesis theory is required to identify the most efficient configurations to realise such frequency function. This is another research strength of the Group.