The Bond Graph Modeling and Experimental Verification of a Hydraulic Inertial Vibration Isolator Including Nonlinear Effects

Passive vibration isolation techniques with low-frequency characteristics have been a hot topic in the aerospace field. A hydraulic inertial vibration isolator is a highly effective type of isolator for controlling low-frequency vibrations. It typically consists of a main spring, a minor spring, an inertial mass, and a fluid domain. Due to its multi-domain nature, analyzing the isolation mechanism of this type of isolator is challenging. The bond graph method is employed to establish the dynamic model of the isolator. Subsequently, the state equations of the isolator are derived, and the energy equations of both the mechanical and the fluid parts of the isolator are obtained. Based on this, the energy transfer characteristics between the mechanical and fluid domains inside the isolator under external excitation are discussed. The time-domain response of the forces transmitted to the foundation is analyzed. It is shown that the anti-resonance frequency occurs when the forces transmitted to the foundation generated by the main spring and the fluid pressure are equal to that of the minor spring. To verify the proposed method’s correctness, a prototype of the isolator is designed and a carefully designed experiment is conducted. The acceleration transmissibility of the isolator is used to conduct a comparative study. The results show that the theoretical results are in good agreement with the experimental results. To depict the dynamic characteristics of the isolator under large amplitude vibration, the nonlinear dynamic model of the isolator is developed, and the corresponding force transmissibility of the isolator is formulated. The energy flow between the mechanical and the fluid domains under this condition is also analyzed. The results indicate that the energy flow responses exhibit a similar change tendency to the force transmissibility. However, the peak of the energy ratio between the mechanical subsystem and the fluid is the same as the linear condition, suggesting that this value is determined by the amplification ratio of the isolator. This research provides enhanced physical insight to understand the dynamic characteristics of this type of isolator and will help to shorten the design cycle of the isolator.