Semi-active isolator made with variable stiffness spring (Mojtaba Azadi, Univ of Alberta) - Part 3/3

This Video shows a semi-active vibration isolator that works with Variable Stiffness Springs. This isolator is developed by Mojtaba Azadi at University of Alberta.
The new variable stiffness spring (SVS) is a prestressed mechanism that provides a new and effective solution to solve a well known and old problem (harmful vibration) in mechanical systems or structures. Semi-active vibration control systems with variable stiffness springs are effective control systems that significantly control the vibration of such systems. Many mechanical variable stiffness elements have emerged as semi-active springs for noise and vibration control. They change the stiffness by altering the geometry of the system and therefore suffer from low response time and high energy and cost.
The SVS is a new solution that avoids these shortcomings using the idea of using antagonistic forces to control the stiffness in prestressed mechanisms. Antagonistic forces are the balanced prestress of the links of a statically indeterminate mechanism when no external load is applied. The theory of making SVS was developed and in order to validate the theoretical and numerical results, a semi-active engine mount, with integrated SVS and a piezo actuator for force control, was designed. A control system was devised as well as a data acquisition setup. A prototype was fabricated and tested using an existing shaker and a dynamic testing machine. The experiments proved the validity of the theoretical results and demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed system for harmful vibration control.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Semi-active
• vibration-isolator