Author’s Accepted Manuscript

Active vibration isolation platform on base of

magnetorheological elastomers

Valery P. Mikhailov, Alexey M. Bazinenkov

www.elsevier.com/locate/jmmm

PII: S0304-8853(16)32444-1
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmmm.2016.10.007
Reference: MAGMA61919
To appear in: Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials
Received date: 18 June 2016
Revised date: 27 September 2016
Accepted date: 2 October 2016
Cite this article as: Valery P. Mikhailov and Alexey M. Bazinenkov, Active
vibration isolation platform on base of magnetorheological elastomers, Journal of
Magnetism and Magnetic Materials,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmmm.2016.10.007
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 Active vibration isolation platform on base of magnetorheological
elastomers
Valery P. Mikhailov, Alexey M. Bazinenkov
Bauman Moscow State Technical University,

2-nd Baumanskaya st. 5, MT-11, 105005, Moscow, Russia

mikhailov@bmstu.ru

Abstract
The article describes the active vibration isolation platform on base of
magnetorheological (MR) elastomers. An active damper based on the MR elastomers can be
used as an actuator of micro- or nanopositioning for a vibroinsulated object. The MR elastomers
give such advantages for active control of vibration as large range of displacements (up to 1mm),
more efficient absorption of the vibration energy, possibility of active control of amplitude-
frequency characteristics and positioning with millisecond response speed and nanometer
running accuracy. The article presents the results of experimental studies of the most important
active damper parameters. Those are starting current, transient time for stepping, transmission
coefficient of the vibration displacement amplitude.
Keywords: magnetorheological elastomer, active vibration isolation, damper.

1. Introduction
The external disturbing vibration impacts during nano - and microelectronics production
reduce the quality of work of the precision equipment such as nano- and microlithography
installations, scanning probe microscopes, optical microscopes, measuring machines, etc. [1].
Active vibration isolation of the equipment is the most effective way to compensate these effects
[2-7]. In order to solve this problem the article presents the active vibration-isolating platform
based on MR elastomers [8-10]. The MR elastomers are composites based on silicone matrix and
micron-sized magnetic particles [11]. Such materials can reversibly deform and change the
modulus of elasticity and the viscosity under the action of a magnetic field. These properties
allow to improve the damping in comparison with conventional viscoelastic systems. In addition,
active damper can be used as micro - and nanopositioning actuator in order to move and stabilize
vibroinsulated object position. The MR elastomers properties are used to control the parameters
of precision, dynamics and amplitude-frequency characteristics of the active damper.

2. Description of the active vibration isolation platform

The vibration isolation platform consists of lower and upper plates, four active dampers
and four elastic suspension units with a mass corrector, evenly spaced around the perimeter of
the platform (Fig. 1, the upper plate is not shown). The elastic suspension units with a mass
corrector are necessary to configure the platform to the desired weight of the object and a
predetermined resonance frequency. Active damper, the sectional view of which is shown in Fig.
2a, consists of a MR elastomer membrane (1) with a movable rigid center, the electromagnetic
coil (2), shell (3), core (4), cover (5) and base (6). There is an air gap between the core and the
rigid center. The damper works as follows: when a control current comes to the electromagnetic
coil (2), a closed magnetic field appears in the electromagnetic system. The radial magnetic field
forms in the membrane (1). The field’s induction has maximum value near the rigid center.
Under the action of the magnetic induction the membrane (1) with the rigid center moves in the
axial direction within the gap. Photo of the MR elastomer with a magnification of 1600 times is
shown in Fig. 2b. The MR elastomer is a matrix made of liquid silicone rubber, where carbonyl
iron particles (with a particle size from 1 to 10 µm) of spherical shape are distributed [4].

Fig. 1. General view of the vibration-isolating platform based on the MR elastomer

(the upper plate is not shown)

a) b)

Fig 2. Sectional view of the active damper based on the MR elastomer (a);
photo of the MR elastomer with a magnification of 1600 times (b)

3. The results of the experiments

We’ve made series of experiments in order to study such parameters of the active damper
based on MR elastomer as starting current, transient time for stepping and transmission
coefficient of the vibration displacement amplitude. The scheme of connection of experimental
equipment to the active damper is shown in Fig. 3. The stand contains the following equipment:
an active damper, a capacitive displacement sensor (1), an analog-digital converter (2), a
personal computer (3), power supply unit (4), which serves as a constant current source.
 Fig. 3. The scheme of stand for study of the active damper based on the MR elastomer

The range of the active damper displacement depending on control current is shown in
Fig. 4. The starting current that defines the most important parameters such as the “dead” zone
and the positioning error has a value to 0.05 A.

Fig. 4. The range of the active damper displacement depending on control current

When the active damper moves from one position to another the transient-process time
determines the maximum operating frequency of the damper during the active suppression of
vibrations. The dynamic behavior of the active damper, which operates as the actuator of micro-
and nanopositioning, is determined by the time of the transient process during its moving in
different modes: step-by-step, continuous tracking or position stabilization mode.
We’ve studied the transient-process time in the situation, when the damper moves step-
by-step from one point to another, for different values of the stepwise control signal (Fig. 5).
 Fig. 5. The graphs of transient processes during step-by-step movements of the active damper

The stepwise control signal came from the constant current source (4) in the range from
0.2 to 0.8 A with 0.2 A step (1 – 0,2 А; 2 – 0,4 А; 3 – 0,6 А; 4 – 0,8 А). When the current
increases from 0.2 to 0.4 A, the transient-process time decreases. When the current comes to 0.4
A, the transient-process time stabilizes. In this case, the minimum transient-process time is 30
ms. The reaction rate may be increased by using a feedback system in the active operational
mode of the damper.
We’ve also studied the range of transmission coefficient of the active damper vibration
displacement amplitude depending on control current for a fixed vibrational frequency of 100 Hz
(Fig. 6). We sent sinusoidal vibrations from the vibrator to the base of the active damper (not
shown in Fig. 3). The transmission coefficient K of the vibration displacement amplitude is
defined as the ratio of vibration displacement amplitude of membrane with a movable rigid
center to vibration displacement amplitude of active damper’s base. The use of the MR effect
allows to adjust the stiffness of the MR elastomer’s membrane due to the change of the magnetic
induction and, respectively, the amplitude-frequency characteristics of the active damper.
When direct current 0.2 A comes to the damper’s electromagnetic coil, the resonance of
the system is observed (Fig. 6). The transmission coefficient K of the vibration displacement
amplitude has a maximum value of about 0.95 and the vibrational amplitude increases.
When the current reaches 1.7 ... 2 A, effective damping of the vibrations is observed. The
transmission coefficient K of the vibration displacement amplitude is minimal, that is about 0.1.
This value is comparable with the characteristics of available vibration-isolating platforms [1, 2].
The transmission coefficient of the vibration displacement amplitude may be reduced by using
closed-loop control system of the active damper in position stabilization mode.
 Fig. 6. Graph of the range of transmission coefficient of the active damper vibration
displacement amplitude depending on control current

4. Conclusions
The starting current that defines the most important parameters such as the “dead” zone
and the positioning error has a value to 0.05 A. The dynamic behavior of the active damper
depends on the transient-process time during its step-by-step moving. When the current increases
from 0.2 to 0.4 A, the transient-process time of the active damper decreases. When the current
comes to 0.4 A, the transient-process time stabilizes. In this case, the minimum response time is
30 ms. The reaction rate may be increased by using a feedback system in the active operational
mode of the damper. We’ve also studied the range of transmission coefficient of the active
damper vibration displacement amplitude depending on control current for a fixed vibrational
frequency of 100 Hz (Fig. 6). When the current reaches 1.7 ... 2 A, effective damping of the
vibrations is observed. The transmission coefficient of the vibration displacement amplitude is
minimal, that is about 0.1. This value is comparable with the characteristics of available
vibration-isolating platforms.

Acknowledgements
This study was performed within the framework of implementing the design part of the
State project no.9.462.2014/K of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science in the field of
research. The authors thank the students of BMSTU: Tovmachenko D.K., Yanchelik A.E.,
Yakovlev V.S. for assistance in the design and preparation of this article.

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