A study of a nonlinear vibration isolator supported on an imperfect boundary plate

Abstract

The research on the nonlinear vibration isolation of continuum systems always focuses on the perfect boundary conditions. In this work, nonlinear isolation of transverse vibrations of the arbitrary boundary rectangular plate was investigated. A novel analytical approach was proposed. The rigid body dynamics and high-order energy Fourier series expansion method were utilized to establish a mathematical model of the arbitrary boundary nonlinear continuum system. This method involves the simultaneous Fourier series expansion in temporal and spatial domains. The dynamic behaviors of an arbitrary boundary rectangular plate with nonlinear vibration isolators can be described through a harmonic balance analysis together with arc-length continuation. The convergence and stability for the frequency response functions were checked via the Lyapunov stability theory. The numerical results supported the analytical solutions. Both the analytical and numerical results demonstrated that nonlinear broadband vibration isolation is sensitive to the elasticity of the arbitrary boundary flexible foundation. Furthermore, increasing damping can effectively suppress the transmission of low-order vibrations and control the divergence of higher-order vibrations. Finally, an experiment rig was designed to validate the nonlinear isolation of the transverse vibrations of an arbitrary boundary plate.