Elliptical leaf spring shock and vibration mounts with enhanced damping and energy dissipation capabilities using lead spring

Moussa Leblouba*, Salah Altoubat, Muhammad Ekhlasur Rahman, Balaji Palani Selvaraj

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)
17 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We present an enhancement to the existing elliptical leaf spring (ELS) for improved damping and energy dissipation capabilities. The ELS consists of a high tensile stainless steel elliptical leaf spring with polymer or rubber compound. This device is conceived as a shock and vibration isolator for equipment and lightweight structures. The enhancement to the ELS consists of a lead spring plugged vertically between the leaves (referred to as lead-rubber elliptical leaf spring (LRELS)). The lead is shown to produce hysteretic damping under plastic deformations. The LRELS isolator is shown to exhibit nonlinear hysteretic behavior. In both horizontal directions, the LRELS showed symmetrical rate independent behavior but undergoes stiffening behavior under large displacements. However, in the vertical direction, the LRELS behavior is asymmetric, exhibiting softening behavior in compression and stiffening behavior in tension. Mathematical models based on the Bouc-Wen model, describing the hysteretic behavior of the proposed isolator, are developed and numerically calibrated using a series of finite element analyses. The LRELS is found to be effective in the in-plane and vertical directions. The improved damping and energy dissipation of the LRELS is provided from the hysteretic damping of the lead spring.

Original languageEnglish
Article number482063
Number of pages12
JournalShock and Vibration
Volume2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 9 Jun 2015
Externally publishedYes

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