Publications

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One of the more common forms of passive vibration isolation in mechanical systems has been the use of elastomeric or foam pads. Cellular silicone foam is one such example which has been used for vibration isolation and mitigating the effects of mechanical shock. There are many desirable properties of cellular silicone, including its resilience and relative insensitivity to environmental extremes. However, there is very little test data that is useful for understanding its dynamic characteristics or for the development of a predictive finite element model. The problem becomes increasingly difficult since foam materials typically exhibit nonlinear damping and stiffness characteristics. In this paper we present a test fixture design and method for extraction of a few dynamic properties of one type of cellular silicone foam pad. The nonlinear damping characteristics derived from the experimental testing are then used to attempt to improve the predictive capability of a linear finite element model of the system. Difficulties and lessons learned are also presented.