Force and displacement transmissibility of a quasi-zero stiffness vibration isolator with geometric nonlinear damping

A geometric nonlinear damping is proposed and applied to a quasi-zero stiffness (QZS) vibration isolator with the purpose of improving the performance of low-frequency vibration isolation. The force, stiffness and damping characteristics of the system are presented first. The steady-state solutions of the QZS system are obtained based on the averaging method for both force and base excitations and further verified by numerical simulation. The force and displacement transmissibility of the QZS vibration isolator are then analysed. The results indicate that increasing the nonlinear damping can effectively suppress the force transmissibility in resonant region with the isolation performance in higher frequencies unaffected. In addition, the application of the nonlinear damping in the QZS vibration isolator can essentially eliminate the unbounded response for the base excitation. Finally, the equivalent damping ratio is defined and discussed from the viewpoint of vibration control.