Analysis and experiment of a vibration isolator using a novel magnetic spring with negative stiffness

The vibration isolator using a novel magnetic spring with negative stiffness (MS-NS) is proposed in this paper. The proposed isolator which combines a positive stiffness spring with the MS-NS in parallel possesses the characteristic of high-static-low-dynamic stiffness. The MS-NS is composed of three cuboidal magnets configured in repulsive interaction. An analytical expression of the stiffness of the MS-NS is derived by using the magnetic charge model, and the approximation to the exact analytical expression is sought. Then, the nonlinearity of the stiffness is analyzed, and it is shown that the MS-NS is approximately linear for small oscillations. In order to validate the correctness and effectiveness of the MS-NS, the vibration transmissibility of the proposed isolator with and without the MS-NS is measured. The experimental results demonstrate that combining a vibration isolator with the MS-NS in parallel can lower the natural frequency of the isolator; and the analytical calculations and experimental results show a good consistency. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.