The Development of an Intelligent Hybrid Active-passive Vibration Isolator

A hybrid active-passive vibration isolator made up of electromagnetic actuator and air spring in parallel can be used to effectively isolate the broadband and line spectrum vibration of mechanical equipment simultaneously. However, due to its reliability and safety problems caused by the impact, its application in ships is limited. In this paper, an impact- resistant structure and an air gap self-sensing method of the passive-active hybrid vibration isolator are proposed and developed on the base of modelling, simulation and analysis. A thin magnetic rubber is filled into the air gap of electromagnetic actuator, which can avoid rigid collision between the armature and the permanent magnet under the action of impact. A suspension armature structure including pre-compression spring is suggested, which can automatically compensate the deformation caused by impact and protect the coil and permanent magnet from impact damage. An air gap self-sensing method is developed through detecting the voltage between the input and output terminals of actuator, which is verified by experiments.