Type of Submission
Poster
Keywords
vibration, mount, stiffness, quasi-zero, casting, 3D printing, finite element, multi-material, isolator
Proposal
Vibration-generating machines are ubiquitous in modern life, and it is often desirable to prevent the vibrations from being transmitted through the machine’s supports to protect either the supported object or nearby structures and equipment from excess shaking. A mounting system with a low stiffness is generally required to isolate a vibration source or receiver. Optimal isolation occurs by disconnecting the path altogether, resulting in zero stiffness, but this is not typically practical since the machine still needs to be supported. Quasi-zero stiffness (QZS) describes a property of a connection point where the stiffness is approximately zero at an operating point but becomes high if the object moves away from that point. This enables a mount to secure a vibrating object relatively in place while substantially reducing the vibrations transmitted through the mounts, and the mechanism works whether it is the base or the supported object that is vibrating. This project is seeking to extend prior work on a QZS mount concept that relies on large deformations of elastomeric beams to enhance its practicality and suitability for a variety of applications.
The specific goals of this project are to evaluate several materials as used in the mounts, explore manufacturing issues with casting and 3D printing processes, apply a multi-material design concept to increase the strength of a mount without losing its QZS properties, and apply the mount concept to a multi-mount system. Physical mechanical testing of various elastomeric materials is used to develop a nonlinear, hyperelastic material characterization for finite element (FE) simulations in both design and analysis of QZS mounts. Mechanical testing of individual mounts and mount systems demonstrates proof of concept and validates the existence of QZS properties seen in FE simulations for both multi-material and single-material mounts. Multi-axis stiffness properties are also evaluated in simulation and measurement for system design purposes, and dynamic testing is presented to characterize the damping in QZS isolation.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Publication Date
2024
Multi-Material Quasi-Zero Stiffness Vibration Isolators
Vibration-generating machines are ubiquitous in modern life, and it is often desirable to prevent the vibrations from being transmitted through the machine’s supports to protect either the supported object or nearby structures and equipment from excess shaking. A mounting system with a low stiffness is generally required to isolate a vibration source or receiver. Optimal isolation occurs by disconnecting the path altogether, resulting in zero stiffness, but this is not typically practical since the machine still needs to be supported. Quasi-zero stiffness (QZS) describes a property of a connection point where the stiffness is approximately zero at an operating point but becomes high if the object moves away from that point. This enables a mount to secure a vibrating object relatively in place while substantially reducing the vibrations transmitted through the mounts, and the mechanism works whether it is the base or the supported object that is vibrating. This project is seeking to extend prior work on a QZS mount concept that relies on large deformations of elastomeric beams to enhance its practicality and suitability for a variety of applications.
The specific goals of this project are to evaluate several materials as used in the mounts, explore manufacturing issues with casting and 3D printing processes, apply a multi-material design concept to increase the strength of a mount without losing its QZS properties, and apply the mount concept to a multi-mount system. Physical mechanical testing of various elastomeric materials is used to develop a nonlinear, hyperelastic material characterization for finite element (FE) simulations in both design and analysis of QZS mounts. Mechanical testing of individual mounts and mount systems demonstrates proof of concept and validates the existence of QZS properties seen in FE simulations for both multi-material and single-material mounts. Multi-axis stiffness properties are also evaluated in simulation and measurement for system design purposes, and dynamic testing is presented to characterize the damping in QZS isolation.
