Abstract: The literature on passive dynamic vibration absorbers (DVA) is reviewed. According to their characteristics of operation, DVAs are categorized as Single degree of freedom DVA (SDOF-DVA), M-SDOF-DVAs, MDOF-DVA, distributed parameter DVA and non-linear DVA. The key achievements on each category of DVAs are summarized and the recent advances are introduced. It is concluded that the designing procedure of SDOF-DVA suppressing one vibration mode of the primary system is well established. Although many approaches have been proposed addressing the optimal design of M-SDOF-DVAs, it is expected that researches on suppressing vibration of structures with multiple DVAs will continue to grow. In addition, efficient and robust reanalysis algorithms for predicting the dynamic response of structures attached multiple absorbers are required. The designing and application of MDOF-DVAs and non-linear DVAs are still open problems. Their physical design, parameter optimization as well as application prospects are much concerned. Moreover, vibrating systems with non-linear DVAs will present complicated dynamics which are drawing more and more attention.

Key words: Dynamic vibration absorber, Optimal design, Tuned mass damper