Development of an isolator working with magnetorheological elastomers and fluids

This paper reports an isolator whose damping and stiffness can be simultaneously controlled by magnetorheological (MR) fluids and MR elastomers. A hydraulically actuated MTS machine was used to test this variable stiffness and damping isolator after its prototype. The field-dependent responses including stiffness variability and damping variability, together with the amplitude-dependent response and frequency-dependent responses were separately tested and analyzed successively. The experimental results prove the successful implementation of the as-designed MRE-F isolator with obvious variable damping and stiffness. A new phenomenological model incorporating Bingham model and four-parameter model was developed to describe the dynamic properties of the isolator. The successful development, experimental testing, and modelling of this innovative variable stiffness and damping isolator make the concept of variable stiffness and damping become feasible.