Research on linear/nonlinear viscous damping and hysteretic damping in nonlinear vibration isolation systems

A nonlinear vibration isolation system is promising to provide a high-efficient broadband isolation performance. In this paper, a generalized vibration isolation system is established with nonlinear stiffness, nonlinear viscous damping, and Bouc-Wen (BW) hysteretic damping. An approximate analytical analysis is performed based on a harmonic balance method (HBM) and an alternating frequency/time (AFT) domain technique. To evaluate the damping effect, a generalized equivalent damping ratio is defined with the stiffness-varying characteristics. A comprehensive comparison of different kinds of damping is made through numerical simulations. It is found that the damping ratio of the linear damping is related to the stiffness-varying characteristics while the damping ratios of two kinds of nonlinear damping are related to the responding amplitudes. The linear damping, hysteretic damping, and nonlinear viscous damping are suitable for the small-amplitude, medium-amplitude, and large-amplitude conditions, respectively. The hysteretic damping has an extra advantage of broadband isolation.