Journals Proceedings

Abstract

Foam-filled fluid (FFFluid) is an innovative material technology that can be used to design anti-vibration devices. This material technology is able to dissipate energy via a number of mechanisms due to the combination of elastic and buckling properties of foams, viscosity properties of fluids and the method of packing the material. The relationship between the energy isolation mechanisms can be altered by modifying the properties of the constituent components which provides significant opportunity for tailoring the response of the isolator to meet the different demands placed upon it. While previous studies have characterized the FFFluid shock absorbers, this paper covers the characterization of the mechanical properties of FFFluid vibration isolators. The work presented here starts by studying the parameters that have an effect on the performance of an FFFluid isolator theoretically. Then, the influence of a selected number of factors on the transmissibility of an FFFluid isolator is systematically studied following the Taguchi Parameters Design method. The investigated factors include size of particles, ratio of foam/fluid, viscosity of the fluid, size of package, displacement and frequency. The main conclusions of this research are (1) the biggest volume of FFFluid and highest viscosity of fluid is providing better results in isolating the vibration sources, and (2) filling 90% of a container with foams that have diameters 5 mm are providing the best force transmissibility characteristic compared to other examined ratios or used sizes.