Vibration of two beams connected by nonlinear isolators: analytical and experimental study

To study the coupling vibration of nonlinear isolators and flexible bodies, test rigs of two flexible beams connected by wire mesh isolators are constructed and investigated both experimentally and analytically. A five-parameter polynomial model of wire mesh isolators is derived by identifying parameters in the frequency domain with the sine-sweep test. For obtaining the parameters that are valid in a wide range of frequency, a numerically assisted identification method is developed. With this model, the vibration of two flexible beams connected by wire mesh isolators is studied. The frequency response is obtained analytically by employing the Green’s function method and harmonic balance method. Sine-sweep test results with three test rigs show good coherence with the corresponding numerical results. With obtained experimental results and numerical results, effect of connection parameters is studied in detail. It is found that traditional design rules for isolators are no longer effective and the coupling vibration must be investigated in the design phase. Another phenomenon is that the damping has a function of weakening the effect of nonlinear stiffness. Nonlinear stiffness and nonlinear damping can decrease the transmissibility along with the increase of the excitation level.