A new magnetorheological elastomer isolator in shear - Compression mixed mode

A new magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) isolator in shear-compression mixed mode is designed in this paper. Two pieces of MRE fabricated with different dimension are utilized in the isolator. The one MRE operates on compressive mode, and the other operates on shear mode. A finite element method magnetic (FEMM) package is used to analyze the magnetic circuit system, and a test system is established to obtain the vibration performance curves of MRE isolator. It is found that the natural frequency of MRE isolator changes greatly with variable current applied, and the amplitude of vibration is attenuated widely. Compared with the natural frequency of 0A, the increment of natural frequency is up to 103% with applied current reaches to 1.5A. The stiffness and damping coefficient of MRE isolator are identified by the experiment. The results show that the variable range of stiffness of MRE isolators with two operating modes is greater than that of single mode.