Theoretical and experimental analyses of a nonlinear magnetic vibration isolator with quasi-zero-stiffness characteristic

Abstract This paper presents a nonlinear magnetic low-frequency vibration isolator designed with the characteristic of quasi-zero stiffness (QZS). An approximate expression of the magnet repulsive force is proposed and a unique analytical relationship between the stiffness of vertical spring and initial gap settings of the magnet springs is derived for the QZS system. Based on the harmonic balance (HB) method, the force transmissibility is formulated and the jumping frequencies, effect of excitation force and damping ratio are discussed for characteristic analysis. An experimental prototype is developed and tested. The performance of the QZS system is verified through a series of experimental studies showing that the new model greatly outperforms standard linear isolation systems especially in low-frequency domain. The tuning techniques for adapting to the change of loading mass and adjusting the QZS property in practice are also addressed.