SIMULATION OF DISPLACEMENT SENSITIVE NONLINEAR DAMPERS VIA INTEGRAL FORMULATION OF DAMPING FORCE CHARACTERIZATION

An integral formulation approach for the characterization of a displac ement sensitive non-linear damping force is proposed. This method is b ased on the transformation of the displacement sensitivity characteris tic of the damper into a velocity sensitivity characteristic, and then using an integral formulation to obtain the damping force over the ve locity range. The response characteristics of a single-degree-of-freed om (DOF) isolator with displacement sensitive non-linear damper is obt ained using the proposed formulation. A local equivalent linearization technique based on energy similarity, as well as direct integration i s used to obtain simulation results. The transmitted force-time histor y as well as system transmissibility are compared with previous studie s employing the traditional nonintegral approach for damping force for mulation. Simulation results are also compared with available experime ntal results to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. It is shown that for displacement dependent dampers, the damper force estimated using an integral formulation is the correct and accurate ap proach for simulation purposes. (C) 1995 Academic Press Limited