Towed wheel shimmy suppression through a nonlinear tuned vibration absorber

Abstract The implementation of the nonlinear tuned vibration absorber (NLTVA) for the suppression of shimmy vibration in towed wheels is addressed in this study. We adopt a modified straight tangent tyre model of a single-degree-of-freedom towed wheel system with an attached NLTVA. Stability analysis illustrated that the NLTVA can significantly improve the stability of the equilibrium of the wheel. Bifurcation analysis highlighted the existence of large bistable regions, which undermines the system’s safety. However, numerical continuation analysis, coupled with a dynamical integrity investigation, revealed that the addition of an intentional softening nonlinearity in the absorber restoring force characteristic enables the complete suppression of the bistable regions, also reducing the amplitude of shimmy oscillations in the unstable region. Quasiperiodic motions were also identified; however, their practical relevance seems marginal.