Self-Damped Pneumatic Isolator for Variable Frequency Excitation

Abstract

The correct amount of damping is very important for the proper functioning of isolation systems. Isolation systems with a small amount of damping are unable to protect the equipment from damaging resonance build-up and excessive damping reduces the isolation effectiveness at high disturbing frequencies. In this paper it is shown that when pneumatic isolators are used, damping can be provided simply by ‘transient pressure feedback’. The main advantage of this method of damping is that it is dependent on the disturbing frequency and, therefore, it is possible to have a large amount of damping at resonant frequency and a decreasing amount of damping as the frequency of vibration increases.