On the Performance of a Two Stage Vibration Isolation System Which has Geometrically Nonlinear Stiffness

Abstract

Linear singlestage vibration isolation systems have a limitation on their performance, which can be overcome passively by using linear twostage isolations systems. It has been demonstrated by several researchers that linear singlestage isolation systems can be improved upon by using nonlinear stiffness elements, especially for lowfrequency vibrations. In this paper, an investigation is conducted into whether the same improvements can be made to a linear twostage isolation system using the same methodology for both force and base excitation. The benefits of incorporating geometric stiffness nonlinearity in both upper and lower stages are studied. It is found that there are beneficial effects of using nonlinearity in the stiffness in both stages for both types of excitation. Further, it is found that this nonlinearity causes the transmissibility at the lower resonance frequency to bend to the right, but the transmissibility at the higher resonance frequency is not affected in the same way. Generally, it is found that a nonlinear twostage system has superior isolation performance compared to that of a linear twostage isolator.