An Experimental Investigation of the Displacement Transmissibility for a Two-Stage HSLD Stiffness System

Vibration isolation across the frequency spectrum is a challenge in many applications, particularly at low frequencies where linear oscillators amplify excitation forces. To overcome this, nonlinear high static low dynamic (HSLD) stiffness oscillators have been proposed with the aim of reducing the resonant frequency while maintaining the high load capacities of much stiffer linear systems. A two-degree of freedom (2DOF) HSLD stiffness system is proposed to investigate the effectiveness of such systems. Experiments reveal that a 2DOF non-linear HSLD stiffness system outperforms a similar single-degree of freedom (SDOF) HSLD stiffness system, as well as similar SDOF and 2DOF linear systems. Three performance criteria are used to assess these systems, including (1) minimizing the resonant frequency and maximizing the isolation zone, (2) minimizing the magnitude of amplification at resonance, and (3) maximizing the ability to isolate large input frequencies. Exact numerical and approximate analytical simulations are validated using these experimental data. A sensitivity analysis of system parameters reveals that it is necessary to incorporate adjustability into the geometry of a design to counteract unavoidable manufacturing tolerances. Changes of less than 2% to the stiffness or geometry of a system can drastically change its dynamic response.