scholarly journals Dynamically variable negative stiffness structures

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. e1500778 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher B. Churchill ◽  
David W. Shahan ◽  
Sloan P. Smith ◽  
Andrew C. Keefe ◽  
Geoffrey P. McKnight

Variable stiffness structures that enable a wide range of efficient load-bearing and dexterous activity are ubiquitous in mammalian musculoskeletal systems but are rare in engineered systems because of their complexity, power, and cost. We present a new negative stiffness–based load-bearing structure with dynamically tunable stiffness. Negative stiffness, traditionally used to achieve novel response from passive structures, is a powerful tool to achieve dynamic stiffness changes when configured with an active component. Using relatively simple hardware and low-power, low-frequency actuation, we show an assembly capable of fast (<10 ms) and useful (>100×) dynamic stiffness control. This approach mitigates limitations of conventional tunable stiffness structures that exhibit either small (<30%) stiffness change, high friction, poor load/torque transmission at low stiffness, or high power active control at the frequencies of interest. We experimentally demonstrate actively tunable vibration isolation and stiffness tuning independent of supported loads, enhancing applications such as humanoid robotic limbs and lightweight adaptive vibration isolators.

2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Abolfathi ◽  
M. J. Brennan ◽  
T. P. Waters ◽  
B. Tang

Nonlinear isolators with high-static-low-dynamic-stiffness have received considerable attention in the recent literature due to their performance benefits compared to linear vibration isolators. A quasi-zero-stiffness (QZS) isolator is a particular case of this type of isolator, which has a zero dynamic stiffness at the static equilibrium position. These types of isolators can be used to achieve very low frequency vibration isolation, but a drawback is that they have purely hardening stiffness behavior. If something occurs to destroy the symmetry of the system, for example, by an additional static load being applied to the isolator during operation, or by the incorrect mass being suspended on the isolator, then the isolator behavior will change dramatically. The question is whether this will be detrimental to the performance of the isolator and this is addressed in this paper. The analysis in this paper shows that although the asymmetry will degrade the performance of the isolator compared to the perfectly tuned case, it will still perform better than the corresponding linear isolator provided that the amplitude of excitation is not too large.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (23) ◽  
pp. 11539
Author(s):  
Cong Hung Nguyen ◽  
Cong Minh Ho ◽  
Kyoung Kwan Ahn

This research introduces an air spring vibration isolator system (ASVIS) based on a negative-stiffness structure (NSS) to improve the vehicle seat’s vibration isolation performance at low excitation frequencies. The main feature of the ASVIS consists of two symmetric bellows-type air springs which were designed on the basis of a negative stiffness mechanism. In addition, a crisscross structure with two straight bars was also used as the supporting legs to provide the nonlinear characteristics with NSS. Moreover, instead of using a vertical mechanical spring, a sleeve-type air spring was employed to provide positive stiffness. As a result, as the weight of the driver varies, the dynamic stiffness of the ASVIS can be easily adjusted and controlled. Next, the effects of the dimension parameters on the nonlinear force and nonlinear stiffness of ASVIS were analyzed. A design process for the ASVIS is provided based on the analytical results in order to achieve high static–low dynamic stiffness. Finally, numerical simulations were performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the ASVIS. The results obtained in this paper show that the values of the seat displacement of the ASVIS with NSS were reduced by 77.16% in comparison with those obtained with the traditional air spring isolator without NSS, which indicates that the design of the ASVIS isolator with NSS allows the effective isolation of vibrations in the low-frequency region.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (19-20) ◽  
pp. 2667-2677 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenhua Zhou ◽  
Shuhan Chen ◽  
Dun Xia ◽  
Jianjun He ◽  
Peng Zhang

A negative stiffness element is always employed to generate high-static–low-dynamic stiffness characteristic of the vibration isolator, reduce the resonance frequency of the isolator, and improve the vibration isolation performance under low and ultra-low frequency excitation. In this paper, a new compact negative stiffness permanent magnetic spring (NSPMS) that is composed of two axial-magnetized permanent magnetic rings is proposed. An analytical expression of magnetic negative stiffness of the NSPMS is deduced by using the Coulombian model. After analyzing the effect of air-gap width, air-gap position, height difference between the inner ring and outer ring on the negative stiffness characteristic, a design procedure is proposed to realize the negative stiffness characteristic with a global minimum linear component and uniformity stiffness near the equilibrium position. Finally, an experimental prototype is developed to validate the effectiveness of the NSPMS. The experimental results show that combining a vibration isolator with the NSPMS in parallel can lower the natural frequency and improve the isolation performance of the isolator.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min Wang ◽  
Xuedong Chen ◽  
Xiaoqing Li

With the improvement of performance in the ultra-precision manufacturing engineering, the requirements for vibration isolation have become increasingly stringent. In order to get wider effective bandwidth and higher performance of vibration isolation in multiple DOFs system, an ultra-low frequency two DOFs’ vibration isolator with positive and negative stiffness in parallel (PNSP) is proposed. The two DOFs’ isolator which combines a positive stiffness (PS) air spring with a negative stiffness (NS) magnetic spring in parallel and combines a PS flat spring with an NS inverted pendulum in parallel is designed to reduce the natural frequency and broaden the effective bandwidth in horizontal and vertical direction. Based on this structure, stiffness models of different components in different directions are established. Compared with a PS isolator, it possesses the characteristic of high-static-low-dynamic stiffness. The simulation curves also provide strong evidence. Last, a real-time active control system and a spectrum testing and analysis system are used for the contrast experiment between the mentioned PNSP structure and PS only. The experimental results demonstrate that the isolator with PNSP can obviously reduce the natural frequency to 1 Hz and simultaneously maintain the stability of the system and consequently verify the validity and superiority of the mentioned structure.


2012 ◽  
Vol 452-453 ◽  
pp. 659-662
Author(s):  
Wei Wang ◽  
Yi Min Deng

Vibration isolation is a most widely used vibration protection method.The stiffness of vibration isolators in existing conventional type of vibration isolation system is usually of fixed value. This limits the system in exhibiting its vibration isolation effect in that, it has poor results for lower frequency vibration, especially for resonance frequency. Magneto-rheological elastomer is a new branch of Magneto-rheological materials. It’s an intelligent materials in that it’s shear modulus can be controlled by a magnetic field. It has wide application prospects in the vibration control area. This paper proposes using adjustable stiffness of magneto-rheological elastomer vibration isolation in vibration isolation system. By changing the current of vibration isolators coil to control the shear modulus of magneto-rheological elastomer, it can adjust the stiffness of the isolation system, making the system obtain wider vibration isolation frequency range. By exploying SimuLink software to analyze the vibration isolation system, it is found that such a design is effective and applicable.


Author(s):  
Walter Anderson ◽  
Constantine Ciocanel ◽  
Mohammad Elahinia

Engine vibration has caused a great deal of research for isolation to be performed. Traditionally, isolation was achieved through the use of pure elastomeric (rubber) mounts. However, with advances in vehicle technology, these types of mounts have become inadequate. The inadequacy stems from the vibration profile associated with the engine, i.e. high displacement at low frequency and small displacement at high frequency. Ideal isolation would be achieved through a stiff mount for low frequency and a soft mount for high frequency. This is contradictory to the performance of the elastomeric mounts. Hydraulic mounts were then developed to address this problem. A hydraulic mount has variable stiffness and damping due to the use of a decoupler and an inertia track. However, further advances in vehicle technology have rendered these mounts inadequate as well. Examples of these advances are hybridization (electric and hydraulic) and cylinder on demand (VCM, MDS & ACC). With these technologies, the vibration excitation has a significantly different profile, occurs over a wide range of frequencies, and calls for a new technology that can address this need. Magnetorheological (MR) fluid is a smart material that is able to change viscosity in the presence of a magnetic field. With the use of MR fluid, variable damping and stiffness can be achieved. An MR mount has been developed and tested. The performance of the mount depends on the geometry of the rubber part as well as the behavior of the MR fluid. The rubber top of the mount is the topic of this study due to its major impact on the isolation characteristics of the MR mount. To develop a design methodology to address the isolation needs of different hybrid vehicles, a geometric parametric finite element analysis has been completed and presented in this paper.


Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 1703
Author(s):  
Michael Coja ◽  
Leif Kari

A waveguide model for a pre-compressed cylindrical natural rubber vibration isolator is developed within a wide frequency range—20 to 2000 Hz—and for a wide pre-compression domain—from vanishing to the maximum in service, that is 20%. The problems of simultaneously modeling the pre-compression and frequency dependence are solved by applying a transformation of the pre-compressed isolator into a globally equivalent linearized, homogeneous, and isotropic form, thereby reducing the original, mathematically arduous, and complex problem into a vastly simpler assignment while using a straightforward waveguide approach to satisfy the boundary conditions by mode-matching. A fractional standard linear solid is applied as the visco-elastic natural rubber model while using a Mittag–Leffler function as the stress relaxation function. The dynamic stiffness is found to depend strongly on the frequency and pre-compression. The former is resulting in resonance phenomena such as peaks and troughs, while the latter exhibits a low-frequency magnitude stiffness increase in addition to peak and trough shifts with increased pre-compressions. Good agreement with nonlinear finite element results is obtained for the considered frequency and pre-compression range in contrast to the results of standard waveguide approaches.


2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuhu Shan ◽  
Wenjiang Wu ◽  
Xuedong Chen

In the ultraprecision vibration isolation systems, it is desirable for the isolator to have a larger load bearing capacity and a broader isolation bandwidth simultaneously. Generally, pneumatic spring can bear large load and achieve relatively low natural frequency by enlarging its chamber volume. However, the oversized isolator is inconvenient to use and might cause instability. To reduce the size, a miniaturized pneumatic vibration isolator (MPVI) with high-static-low-dynamic stiffness (HSLDS) is developed in this paper. The volume of proposed isolator is minimized by a compact structure design that combines two magnetic rings in parallel with the pneumatic spring. The two magnetic rings are arranged in the repulsive configuration and can be mounted into the chamber to provide the negative stiffness. Then dynamic model of the developed MPVI is built and the isolation performances are analyzed. Finally, experiments on the isolator with and without the magnetic rings are conducted. The final experimental results are consistent with the dynamical model and verify the effectiveness of the developed vibration isolator.


2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiao Sun ◽  
Robert A. Wolkow ◽  
Mark Salomons

The extreme sensitivity of a scanning probe microscope demands an exceptional noise cancellation device that could effectively cut off a wide range of vibration noise. Existing commercial devices, although excellent in canceling high frequency noise, commonly leave low frequency vibration unattenuated. We design an add-on active stage that can function together with a standalone existing active stage. The objective is to provide a higher level of noise cancellation by lowering the overall system cut-off frequency. This study is concerned with the theoretical aspects of the coupling characteristics involved in stacking independently designed stages together to form a two-stage isolator. Whether an add-on stage would pose a stability threat to the existing stage needs to be addressed. In addition, we explore the use of coupling effects to optimize the performance of the overall system.


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