Identification of properties of magnetorheological materials and their application to vibration isolator

Abstract

In recent years, various vibration damping methods have been studied to solve vibration problems caused by the sophistication of mechanical technology, and research on vibration damping devices using smart materials is underway. The magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) is known to belong to a class of smart materials whose viscoelastic properties can be varied by an externally applied magnetic field. By using this property, development of semi-active vibration control equipment that enables effective vibration control over a wide range of frequency is being studied. In this study, the characteristics of molded MRE which change stiffness applied magnetic field were evaluated by the dynamic test. Additionally, we proposed a numerical model that expresses elastic behaviors of the MRE and predicted spring constant of MRE incorporated the vibration isolator．Furthermore, we actually developed variable stiffness control vibration isolator incorporated the MRE, and the performance was evaluated by the force responses to forced vibration. Experimental investigations show that the developed vibration isolator has excellent stiffness changing characteristics as compared to the conventional isolator and proposed numerical model can express the change in the stiffness of vibration isolator.