Estimation of damping capacity of rubber vibration isolators under harmonic excitation

The elastomeric compensation device mounted between the vibrating base and protecting object is the main element of any the passive vibration protection system. Rubber and rubber-like materials (elastomers) are the most suitable material for such devices due to their capability of absorbing input energy much better than other construction materials. In this paper rubber absorber of prismatic form with parallel flat ends under axial harmonic kinematic excitation is considered. For the estimation of damping properties of the rubber vibroabsorber two approaches are applied: using the mechanical models based on combination of elastic and viscous elements and using analytical representation of integral equations of creep and relaxation. In this article Maxwell and Burgers mechanical models and Rabotnov’s kernel for analytical representation are used. Damping properties are expressed by the ratio of amplitude of the driving vibration to the amplitude of the forced oscillations of object. Numerical calculations for each method are fulfilled and results are compared