The design of negative stiffness spring for precision vibration isolation using axially magnetized permanent magnet rings

Abstract

A negative stiffness element is always employed to generate high-static–low-dynamic stiffness characteristic of the vibration isolator, reduce the resonance frequency of the isolator, and improve the vibration isolation performance under low and ultra-low frequency excitation. In this paper, a new compact negative stiffness permanent magnetic spring (NSPMS) that is composed of two axial-magnetized permanent magnetic rings is proposed. An analytical expression of magnetic negative stiffness of the NSPMS is deduced by using the Coulombian model. After analyzing the effect of air-gap width, air-gap position, height difference between the inner ring and outer ring on the negative stiffness characteristic, a design procedure is proposed to realize the negative stiffness characteristic with a global minimum linear component and uniformity stiffness near the equilibrium position. Finally, an experimental prototype is developed to validate the effectiveness of the NSPMS. The experimental results show that combining a vibration isolator with the NSPMS in parallel can lower the natural frequency and improve the isolation performance of the isolator.