A tunable high-static-low-dynamic stiffness vibration isolator

In this study, a novel vibration isolator is developed. The developed isolator possesses the characteristics of high-static-low-dynamic stiffness (HSLDS) and can act passively or semi-actively. The HSLDS property of the isolator is obtained by connecting a mechanical spring, in parallel with a magnetic spring that is constructed by a pair of electromagnets and a permanent magnet. The mechanical spring is a structural beam whose stiffness exhibits a hardening behavior. The stiffness of the magnetic spring can be positive or negative, depending on the polarity of the current to the electromagnets. A passive HSLDS isolator is obtained when the electromagnet current is zero. In the stiffness characterization study, the analytical model for each of the springs is established and the tuning parameters are identified. Using the stiffness models, the design optimization issues are investigated. In the experimental study, the effectiveness of the isolator for vibration isolation is tested. The analytical natural frequencies of the isolator are validated experimentally. The relationships between the displacement transmissibility and the exciting frequency are measured both under the passive mode and under the semi-active mode. The on-line tuning capability of the isolator is investigated.     

Experimental Investigation of Nonlinear Vibration Isolator with Fluidic Actuators (NLVIFA)

This paper elaborates a nonlinear fluidic low frequency vibration isolator designed with the characteristics of quasi-zero stiffness (QZS). The existing model of QZS vibration isolator enhances amplitude of vibration and attenuating vibration frequencies. This concern with displacement plays a vital role in the performance and instability of oblique spring setup reduces the isolator performance in horizontal non-nominal loads, in this accordance; this paper associates double acting hydraulic cylinder (fluidic actuators in short) in oblique and helical coil spring. An approximate expression of unique analytical relationship between the stiffness of vertical spring and bulk modulus of the fluid is derived for Quasi – Zero Stiffness Non-Linear Vibration Isolator with Fluidic Actuators (NLVIFA in short) system and the force transmissibility is formulated and damping ratio are discussed for characteristic analysis. Modal analysis carried out and compared with analytical results and an experimental prototype is developed and investigated. The performance of the NLVIFA reduces the external embarrassment more at low frequencies and the series of experimental studies showing that the soft nonlinearity causes limitation in the resonant frequency thereupon the isolation will be enhanced and NLVIFA greatly outperform some other type of nonlinear isolators.     

Vibration isolation characteristics of a nonlinear isolator using Euler buckled beam as negative stiffness corrector: A theoretical and experimental study

This paper concerns the vibration isolation characteristics of a nonlinear isolator using Euler buckled beams as negative stiffness corrector. Both analytical and experimental studies are carried out. The Harmonic Balance Method (HBM) is used to determine the primary resonance response for the single degree of freedom (SDOF) nonlinear system composed by a loaded mass and the nonlinear isolator. The distuning of the loaded mass is taken into consideration, resulting in a Helmoholtz–Duffing equation. The performance of the nonlinear isolator is evaluated by the defined two kinds of transmissibility and compared with that of the linear isolator without the stiffness corrector. The study shows that the asymmetric SDOF nonlinear system can behave like a purely softening, a softening–hardening or a purely hardening system, depending on the magnitude of the excitation level. An experimental apparatus is set up to validate the analytical results. The transmissibility results of the SDOF nonlinear system under base excitation with both discrete sinusoidal frequencies and slowly forward and backward sweeps are given and discussed. The complex jump phenomena under different excitation levels are identified. By introducing the stiffness corrector, the starting frequency of isolation of the nonlinear isolator is found to be lower than that of the linear one with the same support capacity. The proposed nonlinear isolator performs well in applications where the excitation amplitude is not too large.     

一种光电载荷非线性隔振装置的研究

针对光电载荷对隔振性能的需求,提出一种采用菱形连杆机构作为负刚度组件,具有高静、低动刚度特点的非线性隔振器（简称菱形HSLDS隔振器）。采用静力学分析方法,建立了隔振器数学模型,研究了刚度参数设定以及非线性调节方法;利用谐波平衡法（HBM）求解动力学方程,分析了各参数对隔振性能的影响关系;采用动力学仿真软件ADAMS及实物样机对理论模型与结论进行了验证。测试结果表明:菱形HSLDS隔振器具有较方便的参数调整能力,零位刚度及刚度非线性可通过拉簧参数与连杆参数进行设定、优化,隔振的刚度非线性优化程度受主隔振器阻尼以及零位刚度参数影响。相比于传统线性隔振器,菱形HSLDS具有显著的非线性隔振优势,可较好地满足光电载荷隔振需求。     

Design and experiment of a compact quasi-zero-stiffness isolator capable of a wide range of loads

This paper proposes the design and experiment of a vibration isolator capable of isolating a wide range of loads. The isolator consists of two oblique springs and one vertical spring to achieve quasi-zero stiffness at the equilibrium position. The quasi-zero-stiffness characteristic makes the isolator attenuate external disturbance more at low frequencies, when compared with linear isolators. Unlike previous studies, this paper focuses on the analysis of the effect of different loads and the implementation of an adjustment mechanism to handle a wide range of loads. To ensure zero stiffness under imperfect stiffness matching, a lateral adjustment mechanism is also proposed. Instead of using coil springs, special planar springs are designed to realize the isolator in a compact space. Static and dynamic models are developed to evaluate the effect of key design parameters so that the isolator can have a wide isolation range without sacrificing its size. A prototype and its associated experiments are presented to validate the transmissibility curves under three different loads. The results clearly show the advantage of quasi-zero-stiffness isolators against linear isolators.     

A study of a nonlinear vibration isolator with a quasi-zero stiffness characteristic

A vibration isolator consisting of a vertical linear spring and two nonlinear pre-stressed oblique springs is considered in this paper. The system has both geometrical and physical nonlinearity. Firstly, a static analysis is carried out. The softening parameter leading to quasi-zero dynamic stiffness at the equilibrium position is obtained as a function of the initial geometry, pre-stress and the stiffness of the springs. The optimal combination of the system parameters is found that maximises the displacement from the equilibrium position when the prescribed stiffness is equal to that of the vertical spring alone. It also satisfies the condition that the dynamic stiffness only changes slightly in the neighbourhood of the static equilibrium position. For these values, a dynamical analysis of the isolator under asymmetric excitation is performed to quantify the undesirable effects of the nonlinearities. It includes considering the possibilities of the appearance of period-doubling bifurcation and its development into chaotic motion. For this purpose, approximate analytical methods and numerical simulations accompanied with qualitative methods including phase plane plots, Poincaré maps and Lyapunov exponents are used. Finally, the frequency at which the first period-doubling bifurcation appears is found and the effect of damping on this frequency determined.     

Modelling and dynamic properties of a novel solid and liquid mixture vibration isolator

Solid and Liquid Mixture (SALiM) vibration isolator is a new isolator which is designed for vibration isolation of heavy equipment with low frequency. The isolator contains liquid and elastic solid elements as working media. To get the stiffness property of the isolator, this paper establishes the mechanics model of elastic solid elements by introducing plate-shell model. Considering geometry nonlinearity, the stiffness of the element under outer liquid pressure and inner air pressure was obtained by perturbation method. Then the stiffness of isolator is derived. As a result, the stiffness is piecewise linear-nonlinear and determined by parameters of the elastic elements and elastic container. In addition, the equation of motion (EOM) of a single degree of freedom system supported by a SALiM isolator is given. The properties of the frequency response function (FRF) of the system are analysed using averaging method which is a classical approximation approach for estimating nonlinear system FRF. And it is found that the system with SALiM isolator shows softening stiffness behaviour. The jumping phenomenon clearly occurs under certain condition. Finally, the vibration isolation property is predicted based on energy transmissibility (ET) in different cases.     

Octo-strut vibration isolation platform and its application to whole spacecraft vibration isolation

Stewart platform is widely used for vibration isolation and precise pointing. As it is a statically determinate structure, if any strut has fault, a disaster could be unavoidable. In the present paper, an octo-strut passive vibration isolation platform with redundancy is introduced and applied to whole-spacecraft vibration isolation. This platform is modeled with the Newton–Euler method. To avoid such possibility that the spacecraft may interact with the fairing, an approach of stiffness design is proposed to reinforce the rotation stiffness of the platform. With the mathematical model, design parameters of the isolator that will affect the nature frequencies of the isolator-spacecraft system are studied. The transmissibility of the isolator topped with rigid and flexible spacecraft is also studied. Results of analytical and numerical studies show that the octo-strut platform is a reliable and effective approach to improving the dynamic environment of a spacecraft.     

Performance analysis of nonlinear vibration isolator with magneto-rheological damper

A nonlinear vibration isolator is considered to study effectiveness of isolation against harmonic force and displacement excitations. Nonlinearity in the magneto-rheological (MR) fluid based damper as well as in the elastic member is taken into account. The MR-damper has been modeled including Bouc–Wen hysteretic element and the spring is taken to have cubic nonlinearity. Analytical expression for the energy dissipation characteristics of the damper has been derived. Near resonant response of the isolated mass is obtained by a modified averaging technique suitable for hysteretic type nonlinearity present in the system. The performance of the isolators is estimated for various nonlinear stiffness values, both hardening and softening types. Different performance measures are also proposed to judge the performance of the nonlinear isolator.     

On the design of a high-static-low-dynamic stiffness isolator using linear mechanical springs and magnets

The frequency range over which a linear passive vibration isolator is effective is often limited by the mount stiffness required to support a static load. This can be improved upon by incorporating a negative stiffness element in the mount such that the dynamic stiffness is much less than the static stiffness. In this case, it can be referred to as a high-static-low-dynamic stiffness (HSLDS) mount. This paper is concerned with a theoretical and experimental study of one such mount. It comprises two vertical mechanical springs between which an isolated mass is mounted. At the outer edge of each spring, there is a permanent magnet. In the experimental work reported here, the isolated mass is also a magnet arranged so that it is attracted by the other magnets. Thus, the combination of magnets acts as a negative stiffness counteracting the positive stiffness provided by the mechanical springs. Although the HSLDS suspension system will inevitably be nonlinear, it is shown that for small oscillations the mount considered here is linear. The measured transmissibility is compared with a comparable linear mass-spring-damper system to show the advantages offered by the HSLDS mount.     

菱形HSLDS隔振器负刚度机构质量及摩擦力影响分析

以菱形负刚度机构HSLDS(high static low dynamic stiffness)隔振器(简称菱形HSLDS隔振器)为研究目标,采用虚功法建立负刚度机构等效摩擦力模型,并以拉格朗日方法建立包含负刚度机构质量及摩擦力因素的动力学方程;利用谐波平衡法(HBM)求解动力学方程,分析了负刚度机构质量及摩擦力对隔振...     

Control of a unique active vibration isolator with a phase compensation technique and automatic on/off switching

This work examines the characteristics of a unique active vibration isolator and develops a control strategy for it. The proposed active vibration isolator is introduced and its dynamic model is presented. A characterization study is conducted to identify system parameters. It is shown that with a simple proportional feedback the closed-loop system has a very narrow stability margin due to the inherent dynamics of the actuator. To improve the stability of the closed-loop system and enhance the performance of vibration isolation, a phase compensator is incorporated in the control scheme. An optimization problem is formulated to determine the optimum controller parameters by minimizing the 2nd norm of the displacement transmissibility. Both absolute position feedback and relative position feedback are considered. In real time implementation, an automatic on/off switching strategy is devised to take full advantage of both the active isolator and passive isolator. The experimental results show that with the proposed control scheme, the isolator is capable of suppressing base excitations effectively.     

On the concept of a transmission absorber to suppress internal resonance

Internal resonances within vibration isolators have been shown to increase force transmission and consequently radiated noise from supporting structures. Previous research has successfully used dynamic vibration absorbers to attenuate internal resonances. This paper introduces the term transmission absorber to describe a system that exerts both restoring and inertial forces proportional to relative motion. A novel uni-axial vibration isolator concept incorporating transmission absorbers to suppress internal resonance is proposed and theoretically compared with an isolator including dynamic vibration absorbers. The designs are optimised by using a combination of particle swarm and gradient-based optimisation algorithms. It is shown that the proposed isolator concept, incorporating transmission absorbers, has the potential to outperform previous designs, demonstrating force transmissibility levels approaching those of an ideal isolator.     

Nonlinear vibration isolator with adjustable restoring force

This paper presents a vertical quasi-zero stiffness (QZS) vibration isolator with a mechanism for adjusting restoring force. QZS vibration isolators have high initial stiffness and QZS around the static equilibrium position. This way, excessive deformation due to self-weight can be avoided while having enough vibration reduction capability to dynamic excitations. One of the main issues left for QZS vibration isolators is the difficulty in keeping the vibration reduction capability when the vibration isolated object is replaced. In such a case, adjustment of its restoring force becomes necessary in accordance with the self-weight of the newly placed vibration isolated object. This paper attempts to address this issue by proposing a mechanism that enables quick and easy adjustment of the restoring force of a QZS vibration isolator. The proposed mechanism consists of cranks and a screw jack. With the present mechanism, the restoring force provided by horizontally placed springs can be converted into the vertical restoring force of the vibration isolator. In the conversion, the vertical resisting force can be adjusted simply by applying and removing torque to the screw jack to change and hold the angle of inclined bars placed in the cranks. In this study, a prototype of a class of QZS vibration isolator having the proposed mechanism is produced. Shaking table tests are performed to demonstrate the efficacy of the present mechanism, where the produced prototype is subjected to various sinusoidal and earthquake ground motions. It is demonstrated through the shaking table tests that the produced prototype can reduce the response acceleration within the same tolerance even when the mass of the vibration isolated object is changed.     

Stability and performance limits for active vibration isolation using blended velocity feedback

This paper presents a theoretical study of active vibration isolation on a two degree of freedom system. The system consists of two lumped masses connected by a coupling spring. Both masses are also attached to a firm reference base by a mounting spring. The lower mass is excited by a point force. A reactive control force actuator is used between the two masses in parallel with the coupling spring. Both masses are equipped with an absolute velocity sensor. The two sensors and the actuator are used to implement velocity feedback control loops to actively isolate the upper mass from the vibrations of the lower mass over a broad range of frequencies. The primary concern of the study is to determine what type of velocity feedback configuration is suitable with respect to the five parameters that characterise the system (the three spring stiffnesses and the two masses). It is shown analytically that if the ratio of the lower mounting spring stiffness to the lower mass is larger than the ratio of the upper mounting spring stiffness to the upper mass (supercritical system), feeding back the absolute upper mass velocity to the reactive force actuator results in an unconditionally stable feedback loop and the vibration isolation objective can be fully achieved without an overshot at higher frequencies. In contrast, if the ratio of the lower mounting spring stiffness to the lower mass is smaller than the ratio of the upper mounting spring stiffness to the upper mass (subcritical system), the upper mass velocity feedback is conditionally stable and the vibration isolation objective cannot be accomplished in a broad frequency band. For subcritical systems a blended velocity feedback is proposed to stabilise the loop and to improve the broad-band vibration isolation effect. A simple inequality is introduced to derive the combinations between the two error velocities that guarantee unconditionally stable feedback loops.     

Attenuation of flexural vibration for floating floor and floating box induced by ground vibration

This paper investigates the vibration isolation performance of floating floor and floating box structures to control rail vibration transmission. Simple theoretical and experimental methods are developed to analyze the effects of stiffener beam, mass and arrangement of isolator on the fundamental natural frequency of the flexural vibration of floating floor and box structure.The vibration reduction performances of floating floor and box structure are found to be degraded by flexural vibration of the floor or supporting stiffener beam. From the results of vibration measurements; stiffener beams increase the fundamental natural frequency of flexural vibration of floating floor and enhance vibration isolation. Also they can further alleviate the effect of flexural vibration using optimum isolator arrangement effectively. The proposed floating box design achieved a vibration reduction of 15-30 dB in frequency region of critical rail vibration (30-200 Hz).     

Temperature field in rubber vibration isolators

The temperature field inside a vibrating rubber solid cylinder is investigated. The rubber cylinder, a specimen of a vibration isolator rubber (Neoprene GR), is subjected to a repeatedly cyclic compressive force by means of an electrodynamic shaker. In the experimental investigation the temperatures at 16 different locations inside the cylinder have been measured by means of copper-constantan thermocouples. After the estimation of the heat generated per unit volume per unit time with the help of the estimated damping and stiffness coefficients of rubber, one can attempt the solution of the heat conduction equation describing the temperature field inside the rubber specimen. The values of the temperature found from the analytical investigation compare fairly well with the experimental measurements.     

Stiffness scaling laws and vibration isolators

The variation in dynamic stiffness due to a geometrical shift of a cylindrical vibration isolator is predicted by a scaling law and compared to the results of a waveguide solution. The simple scaling law fails to model satisfactorily the stiffness variation due to a single length or radius shift, while predicting successfully the results of an isolator shape invariant shift. The small deviations arise from a disregarded material property shift.     

Vibration of an excitation system supported flexibly on a viscoelastic sandwich beam at its mid-point

A vibration analysis of an excitation system supported flexibly on a three layer sandwich beam is presented in this paper. The flexibly supported excitation system, which is essentially the primary system, consists of a mass, a spring and a dash-pot. The beam is analyzed separately as a continuous system in a classical way and then its dynamic stiffness at the junction point is combined with that of the primary system to obtain the resultant dynamic stiffness, which in turn is used to develop the expressions for the response of the primary system and the transmissibility provided by the whole system. Both response and transmissibility are evaluated for different geometrical and physical parameters of the sandwich beam. The solution to this problem is also obtained by approximating the sandwich beam by a lumped mass supported on a spring and dash-pot. The results in the two cases are compared. Results obtained from an experimental test-rig substantiate the theoretical results.     

Adaptive-passive vibration isolation between nonrigid machines and nonrigid foundations using a dual-beam periodic structure with shape memory alloy transverse connection

This paper examines the problem of broadband vibration control of nonrigid systems employing periodic structures with tunable parameters. It investigates this by using a semi-two-dimensional model that applies a dual-beam periodic structure with transverse branches as a parameter-tunable isolator. Conventional study of vibration control problems, including the problem of vibration control by periodic structures, usually reduces systems to equivalent single- or multi-mount models with only a unidirectional translation at a mounting point. This assumption of decoupling leads to the erroneous prediction of vibratory power transmission when designing an isolator for a nonrigid system. Such a periodic structure involves the coupling of vibrations between different mounting points and different directions of motion and is therefore a reasonable simulation of the real-life problem. However, its application as a periodic isolator has not been proposed previously. The configuration of shape memory alloy (SMA) branches and non-SMA dual beams is proposed in order that this structure can effectively exploit the advantages of SMA materials, namely their significantly varying Young?s moduli which can be tuned to adjust and widen the stop bands, and can prevent the associated limitation of hysteresis. Equations are derived governing the vibration transmitted through any number of periodic mounts between nonrigid machines and foundations. Based on the derived results, two methodologies are developed to determine the proper Young?s moduli of the SMA branches and minimize the transmitted power. The numerical results demonstrate that the adaptive SMA branches at the proper temperatures are able to attenuate broadband vibration by adjusting the locations and broadening the widths of stop bands. With the application of a semi-two-dimensional periodic structure to broadband vibration isolation, this paper provides an approach and supporting methodologies for broadband vibration control using periodic structures.