1 Corresponding author Preliminary Design of a Test Rig for Combining Passive Nonlinear Isolation with Active Control

Resilient elements are typically used to isolate delicate equipment from a vibrating host structure. Conventionally, these isolators are designed to operate in their linear region, but more recently nonlinear isolators have been employed to increase the frequency over which vibration isolation can be achieved. Another way of improving the performance of an isolator has been to use active control in conjunction with a passive linear system. The work presented in this paper concerns the development of an experimental rig for vibration isolation and is motivated by the intention to combine the advantages of passive nonlinear isolation with active control. The structure consists of a mass suspended on four tensioned wires to form a single-degree-of-freedom system. The nonlinear stiffness of the wires is such that the system behaves like a hardening Duffing oscillator. Firstly, a static analysis is carried out, both analytically and experimentally, where the nonlinearity of the system is determined by the tension, length, cross-sectional area and Young’s modulus of the wires. For the dynamic analysis, harmonic base excitation is considered. The magnitude of the base displacement is fixed for all excitation frequencies and the level of nonlinearity is adjusted by varying the tension in the wires, a higher tension leading to a milder system nonlinearity. Finally, the motion transmissibility of the system is measured and appears to agree with the theoretical result. The rig forms a suitable platform for subsequent incorporation of an active control system for combining the benefits of passive nonlinear isolation with, for example, skyhook damping