Development of an electrorheological elastomer isolator working in shear-squeeze mixed mode

The vibrating screen equipment will resonate through the resonance region during startup and shutdown stage. However, the stiffness and damping of the traditional passive vibration isolator cannot be adjusted in use, which leads to the unsatisfactory vibration isolation effect of that on the installation foundation of vibrating screen. In this paper, based on the characteristics of electrorheological elastomer (ERE) with tunable storage modulus, a variable stiffness ERE isolator in shear-squeeze mixed mode is developed. At the first step, the EREs used for the isolator was prepared, and the dynamic viscoelastic properties were measured. After that, the structure of ERE isolator was designed, and the vibration isolation effect of the ERE isolator for vibrating screen was analyzed by simulation. The simulation results demonstrate the resonance amplitude and stopping time of the vibrating screen in startup and shutdown stage will decrease with the ascending electric field strength. Finally, the shear-squeeze mixed-mode ERE isolator was tested on electro-dynamic shaker. The experimental results indicate that the ERE isolator has a better effect of vibration reduction with increased electric field strength in startup and shutdown stage of vibrating screen, and the acceleration transmissibility by ERE isolator is reduced 37.6% under 3 kV mm⁻¹.