A test method of dynamic parameters of vibration isolators

Damping coefficient and stiffness coefficient are very important parameters of analysis of vibration isolation performance during the design of isolators, and an effective way to determine their corresponding numerical values is testing technique. This paper presents a simplified test method to measure the damping coefficients and stiffness coefficients of a multi-parameter model of viscous fluid micro-vibration isolators with large damping. Based on the equality of mechanical impedance, a two-parameter model which is convenient to be tested could be obtained from the multi-parameter model, then the measurements of equivalent coefficients and stiffness coefficient of each component were conducted with a self-designed test setup. Besides, the calculated numerical values of vibration model were entered into Simulink simulation model, then the equivalent damping coefficients and equivalent stiffness coefficients were compared respectively with that directly received from hysteretic loop of test. The results whose discrepancy is within 5% show great consistency between simulation and measurement, and prove the feasibility and availability of the method proposed. The most significant advantage of all, the variations of damping coefficients and stiffness coefficients with frequency are also obtained, which are difficult for traditional methods and would be valuable for the design of vibration isolation. The method presented could also be applied to general isolators to measure their damping coefficients and stiffness coefficients.