Elastomer isolator with an SMA actuator for vibration control

Jaakko Heinonen, Tuomo Kärnä, Ismo Vessonen, Paul Klinge, Tomi Lindroos

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference article in proceedingsScientific

    Abstract

    A semi-active device was developed to mitigate structural vibrations.The idea was to change the boundary condition of the device to adjust its stiffness.The selected construction was an axial spring made of elastomer material.When a cylindrical block of elastomer is compressed, it expands in the direction perpendicular to the load.Restricting the expansion, the axial stiffness in the loading direction becomes higher.The controllable stiffness region when the device is acting in stiff and soft modes was determined by numerical analysis.The stiffness ratio depends on the geometric shape of the spring and the ratio between the confined area in the stiff mode and the area where the material can expand freely in the soft mode.With a suitable design of the spring, the stiffness ratio can be over 10.A circular support ring made of shape memory alloy (SMA) was used as an actuator, which was attached to the outside of the cylindrical elastomer spring.The change of boundary condition was controlled by the gap between the elastomer spring and the constraint.The stiffness control was applied by controlling the temperature of SMA actuator.Experimental tests were carried out to verify the feasibility of the device.Dynamic loading tests indicated promising results.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationApplied Material Research at VTT
    Subtitle of host publicationSymposium on Applied Materials
    Place of PublicationEspoo
    PublisherVTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
    Pages17-29
    ISBN (Electronic)951-38-6312-3
    ISBN (Print)951-38-6311-5
    Publication statusPublished - 2006
    MoE publication typeB3 Non-refereed article in conference proceedings
    EventInternal Symposium on Applied Materials - Espoo, Finland
    Duration: 8 Jun 20068 Jun 2006

    Publication series

    SeriesVTT Symposium
    Number244
    ISSN0357-9387

    Conference

    ConferenceInternal Symposium on Applied Materials
    Country/TerritoryFinland
    CityEspoo
    Period8/06/068/06/06

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