Designing a linear structure with a local nonlinear attachment for enhanced energy pumping

We present a design procedure for enhancing nonlinear energy pumping from a mode of a linear-damped substructure to a weakly coupled, essentially nonlinear oscillator. By this we denote the one way, irreversible passive transfer of vibrational energy from the mode to the nonlinear attachment. The design relies in the asymptotic expansion for large energies of a nonlinear normal mode of the underlying conservative system that provides an analytic estimate of the level of the amplitude reached by the nonlinear attachment in the energy pumping regime. The analytical findings are validated by direct numerical simulations.