Multi-direction vibration isolation via transverse isotropy control of metal rubber

Abstract Metal rubber (MR) is widely used for vibration isolation due to its high damping and designable stiffness, but the isolation efficiency is relatively low in the non-molding direction due to its transverse isotropy. In this paper, the transverse isotropy of MR is controlled by design of manufacturing parameters (wire diameter, spiral diameter and compression ratio), material parameter (relative density) and geometric structure, to improve the isolation efficiency in the non-molding direction. Firstly, the helix unit was adopted to establish the relation between the transverse isotropy of MR material and manufacturing parameters, and manufacturing parameters were designed to control the transverse isotropy of MR material. Next, based on parametric modeling and genetic algorithm, material parameters and geometric structure were optimized to control the transverse isotropy of MR isolator. Finally, the transverse isotropy of the designed MR isolator was tested by quasi-static experiments, and multi-direction vibration isolation performance was verified by random vibration experiments. It is demonstrated that the transverse isotropy is controlled efficiently, and the vibration isolation efficiencies of the proposed MR isolator are all up to 85% under 15-2000Hz broadband random vibration in X, Y and Z directions.