Development and Validation of A Lateral Mres Isolator

A novel lateral vibration isolator utilizing magnetorheological elastomers (MREs) with the field-dependent damping and stiffness was proposed in order to improve the adaptive performance. First, soft silicone rubber MREs with a highly adjustable shear storage modulus was fabricated. Then, the lateral MREs isolator was developed with a unique laminated structure of MRE layers and steel plates, which enables to withstand large vertical loads and adapts to the situation of large lateral displacement. Also, the electromagnetic analysis and design employed electromagnetic finite element method (FEM) to optimize magnetic circuit inside the proposed device. To evaluate the effectiveness of the lateral MREs isolator, a series of experimental tests were carried out under various applied magnetic fields. Experimental results show that the proposed MREs isolator can triumphantly change the lateral stiffness and equivalent damping up to 140% and 125%, respectively. This work demonstrates the performance of the designed lateral MREs isolator and its capacity in vibration mitigation for the complex situation.