Magnetorheological Elastomer Based Flexible Metamaterials Coupler for Broadband Longitudinal Vibration Isolation: Modeling and Experimental Verification

Longitudinal vibrations due to different external excitations are omnipresent in almost every machine, eventually leading to unplanned downtime, and in some cases, catastrophic failures. The passive approach to isolate such vibration has some limitations. Magnetorheological elastomers (MREs) typically consist of micron-sized magnetic particles dispersed in an elastomeric matrix. Their mechanical and rheological properties can be altered under the influence of magnetic field. Thus, the distinctive behavior of magnetorheological elastomers paved the way for successful employment in vibration isolation. In this study, an MRE-based metamaterial coupler is designed for broadband vibration attenuation with distinctive characteristics unattainable by conventional couplers in longitudinal vibration. The vibration control performance of the proposed model is investigated in terms of its transmissibility factor. Sweep vibration test is conducted to examine the transmissibility factor for single, double, and triple-layer MRE metamaterial couplers accompanied by different activation scenarios. The results reveal that the stiffness of the MRE layers increases with the strength of the applied magnetic field. Utilizing more than one layer of MRE increases the ability to isolate longitudinal vibration at different frequency bands. The maximum reduction curves achieved by single, double, and triple-layer MREs are approximately 84.5%, 97%, and 99.6%, respectively. The findings of this study demonstrate that the proposed MRE-based metamaterial couplers can attenuate vibrations at broadband frequencies.