Dynamic characterizations of underwater structures using noncontact vibration tests based on nanosecond laser ablation in water: evaluation of passive vibration suppression with damping materials

Recently, the demand for higher performing underwater structures under diverse conditions has increased. Examples include improved precision and speed of the position control of robot manipulators. To prevent the control spillover problems when active controls are used, a control system is typically constituted with a low-pass filter to eliminate all modes except for the target modes. However, experimentally measuring the dynamic properties of an underwater structure in an environment where the structure and a fluid continuously influence each other is difficult. We have recently proposed a noncontact vibration testing method for dynamic characterizations of underwater structures in which the response to a laser ablation excitation force is measured by laser Doppler vibrometer. Integrating passive control using a vibration-damping material affixed onto the underwater structure and active control constituted with the low-pass filter may realize a more cost-effective system. To develop this combined control into a practical method, the reliability of the measured frequency response function must be validated. Additionally, the applicable frequency range must be expanded to encompass the high-frequency region (several tens of kHz) so that the vibration suppression quality of underwater structures can be evaluated. Herein we quantify the effect of random measurement errors on the measured frequency response function with a reliability factor based on the concept of coherence functions. Using the measured frequency response function with a reliability factor, we demonstrated that our method can evaluate passive vibration suppression effect of an underwater structure with a damping material in high-frequency ranges up to 20 kHz.