Composite Structures 243 (2020) 112244

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Composite Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compstruct

Design of metastructures with quasi-zero dynamic stiffness for vibration T

isolation
⁎
Haigui Fan , Lijuan Yang, Yuchen Tian, Zewu Wang
School of Chemical Machinery and Safety Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, No. 2 Linggong Road, Dalian, Liaoning 116023, PR China

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: A metastructure consisting of numerous unit cells with quasi-zero stiffness property has been designed and
Metastructure researched in this paper. The quasi-zero stiffness property is realized in each unit cell by combining snap-through
Vibration isolation behavior of a sinusoidal beam and bending dominated support of two semicircular arches. Mechanical behavior
Quasi-zero stiffness of the metastructure is derived theoretically based on the property of all the unit cell components. The unit cell
Snap through
and metastructure samples are designed and fabricated by the FDM additive manufacturing technology.
Transmissibility
Experiments and simulations are carried out on the samples to investigate static characteristics of the metas-
tructure and verify the theoretical solution. Based on that, dynamic analysis of the metastructure under dis-
placement control vibration is carried out to study the vibration isolation performance of the metastructure by
theoretical and simulation methods. Results show that the presented metastructure can achieve good quasi-zero
stiffness property by designing the unit cells properly. It exhibits excellent vibration isolation performance and
has great potential to be used as continuous structures or materials in the vibration isolation for small-scale
equipment which is difficult to be realized by installation of the spring mechanism.

1. Introduction large-scale individual structure used to support a vehicle seat or protect

Vibration isolators are widely used in engineering systems to sepa-
rate objects of interest from external vibration excitation [1–3]. In order
to provide effective isolation, a low natural frequency is desirable for
the vibration isolators. Compared with the linear isolators that require a
small stiffness and a large static deflection to achieve a low natural
frequency, a nonlinear isolator known as quasi-zero stiffness (QZS)
isolator has been proposed [4–12]. It can be designed with a large static
stiffness to support large weight and a low dynamic stiffness to isolate
external vibration. A classic prototype of this QZS isolator consists of a
positive-stiffness element and a negative-stiffness element which can be
realized by spring mechanisms as shown in Fig. 1 [13]. Combining the
positive stiffness realized by the vertical spring and the negative stiff-
ness realized by the oblique spring, a region of small static stiffness or
even quasi-zero stiffness can be produced. It is an ideal region that can
be used for vibration isolation because the natural frequency is quite
low. Meanwhile, the QZS isolator also has a large load capacity pro-
vided by the vertical spring element which can overcome the dis-
advantage of the linear isolators. Besides the oblique spring element,
the negative stiffness of the isolator can also be realized by prestressed
or buckled beams [14].
However, previous researches of QZS isolator mainly focus on the
the engine from external disturbances. For the precision instruments or
microdevices with much smaller size, miniaturization and installation
of the spring mechanisms will be quite difficult to ensure the isolation
performance. Thus, a continuous structure or material with the QZS
properties and the similar size of the precision instruments or micro-
devices will be quite applicable to the vibration isolation as the coating
or supporting parts. With the rapid development of additive manu-
facturing technology, metamaterials and metastructures have been
proposed and realized in the field of energy absorption and vibration
isolation in recent years. Negative stiffness obtained from from unit cell
by buckling or snap-through is regarded as the principle to realize en-
ergy absorption for metamaterials and metastructures [15,16]. By as-
sembling the unit cells with negative stiffness property in series ap-
propriately, the metastructures will exhibit desired shock protection or
energy absorption performance [17,18]. It shows that as an artificial
man-made material and structure with advanced mechanical and phy-
sical performances, the unique properties of metamaterials and me-
tastructures are strictly dependent on the configuration of internal
periodic unit cells rather than the inherent attributes of solid materials.
Thus, different kinds of unit cells with the negative stiffness property
have been realized in recently presented metastructures. Specially de-
signed curved beams [19–23] and inclined beams [24,25] under

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: haigui@dlut.edu.cn (H. Fan).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2020.112244
Received 25 December 2019; Received in revised form 12 March 2020; Accepted 18 March 2020
Available online 21 March 2020
0263-8223/ © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
H. Fan, et al.
Fig. 1. A classic QZS isolator realized by spring mechanisms [13]
constrained supporting frames are commonly used as unit cells with
negative stiffness property since they are easy to be fabricated via 3D
printing technology. It opens a new path for the exploration of con-
tinuous structures used for vibration isolation in the micro machinery.
This paper aims to design a metastructure with quasi-zero dynamic
stiffness and research its characteristics in vibration isolation applica-
tion. Firstly, a metastructure consisting of numerous unit cells is de-
signed and the mechanical behavior possessing quasi-zero stiffness is
derived in Section 2. Then, static characteristics of the metastructure
under uniaxial compression have been investigated by experiments and
simulations in Section 3. Following that, dynamic property and vibra-
tion isolation performance of the metastructure are studied and eval-
uated in Section 4. At last, conclusions are given in Section 5.
2. Design model of the metastructures
2.1. Structural model
The metastructure designed in this paper is shown in Fig. 2, whose
unit cell is formed by a sinusoidal beam, a couple of semicircular arches
and the stiffer walls. Since the clamped curve beam will exhibit nega-
tive stiffness property under lateral load, and the bending dominant
arch will exhibit positive stiffness property under vertical load. Then,
by arranging these elements appropriately, the quasi-zero stiffness will
certainly be realized in the unit cell as well as the whole metastructure.
As shown in Fig. 2(c), the shape of the sinusoidal beam is given by
y = h/2[1-sin(2π(x-l1/4)/l1)], with the length l1, depth b1, thickness t1
and amplitude h. The semicircular arch in Fig. 2(d) has the length l2,
Fig. 2. (a) Structural model. (b) Unit cell. (c) Sinusoidal beam. (d) Semicircular arch.
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Composite Structures 243 (2020) 112244
Fig. 3. Force-displacement curve of the sinusoidal beam and the semicircular
arch.
radius R = l2/4, depth b2 and thickness t2. The sinusoidal beam and the
semicircular arches are all connected by the stiffening walls of thickness
t. By arranging the negative stiffness beam and the positive stiffness
arches in parallel, the unit cell is expected to possess a region of quasi-
zero stiffness. Then, the unit cell can be used to form the whole me-
tastructure as shown in Fig. 2(a), the static stiffness of the metastructure
for supporting the isolated weight and the region of the quasi-zero
stiffness can also be designed for different applications.
2.2. Mechanical model of the metastructure
The mechanical behavior of the sinusoidal beam subjected to a
lateral displacement applied at the center can be approximated by using
modal superposition of the buckling modes of a straight clamped beam
[26]. According to Qiu et al [27], when the parameters of the sinusoidal
beam satisfy h1/t1 ≥ 6, it’s force–displacement curve can be approx-
imatively represented by three connected straight lines as shown in
Fig. 3. The corresponding parameters in the force–displacement curve
are given as follows where E is the Young's modulus of the constituent
material and I1 is the moment of inertia of the beam.
H. Fan, et al. Composite Structures 243 (2020) 112244

EI1 h EI1 h
ftop = 740 , fbot = −370 , d top = 0.16h, dbot = 1.92h,
l13 l13
d end = 1.99h (1)
Then, the stiffness of the sinusoidal beam at these three different
stages can be derived as follows.
4625EI1 13875EI1 37000EI1
ka1 = , ka2 = − , ka3 =
l13 22l13 7l13 (2)
For the semicircular arch which is primarily bending dominated, the
force–displacement curve under vertical displacement can be re-
presented as the spring element with constant stiffness approximately
as shown in Fig. 3. The stiffness of the arch will be proportional to the
Young's modulus of the constituent material E, the moment of inertia of
the arch I2 and the reciprocal of cube of the arch’s length l2 based on
beam theory. Thus, the stiffness of the semicircular arch can be written
as
EI2
kb = α Fig. 5. FEA results of the semicircular arch’s stiffness and the fitting curve.
l 23 (3)
in which α is a non-dimensional coefficient. Note that the non-dimen-
sional coefficient corresponding to different cross-sections can both be
derived by elastic analysis [28] and finite element method. In order to
present deformation response of the semicircular arch and ensure that
it’s always in elastic state when displaying quasi-zero stiffness property,
the finite element method performed by ABAQUS is selected in this
paper. The arches are modeled with solid elements C3D20R with linear
elastic material, and subjected to an end displacement in the vertical
direction equal to 0.4 × l2. A number of simulations are performed with
arches of different thicknesses and the non-dimensional coefficient α
can be obtained by the fitting curve of the stiffness-thickness relation-
ship. All the Finite Element analyses are quasi-static and non-linear.
Taking an arch with the parameter t2/l2 = 0.04 as an example, the
simulation result of the arch under vertical displacement and the non-
dimensional force–displacement curve are shown in Fig. 4. It can be
seen that the force–displacement curve is approximate straight line and
the stiffness of the arch can be obtained as kb = F/ΔL. Accordingly, the
stiffness of the semicircular arches with different thicknesses are ob-
tained and the FEA results of the non-dimensional stiffness kb/Eb2 with
the parameter t2/l2 are shown in Fig. 5. A cubic fit curve which is in Fig. 6. Force-displacement curve of the unit cell.
excellent agreement with the FEA results provided the value of the non-
dimensional coefficient as α = 18.257. connected straight lines and the quasi-zero stiffness will be obtained in
Considering that the sinusoidal beam and the semicircular arches the region Ⅱ as shown in Fig. 6. The stiffness expressions of the unit cell
are arranged in parallel, the stiffness of the unit cell under vertical can be obtained as follows.
displacement will be the sum of each stiffness. Thus, the for-
ce–displacement curve of the unit cell can also be represented by three k1 = ka1 + 2kb, k2 = ka2 + 2kb, k3 = ka3 + 2kb (4)

According to Fig. 2(a), the metastructure consists of a series of unit

cells arranged in the horizontal and vertical directions. We assume that
the number of the unit cells in the horizontal direction is m and in the
vertical direction is n. Based on the series–parallel springs theory, the
stiffness and the corresponding vertical displacement of the metas-
tructure with (m,n) unit cells can be obtained as follows.

n n n
K1 = (ka1 + 2kb), K2 = (ka2 + 2kb), K3 = (ka3 + 2kb)
m m m
(5)

Dtop = 0.16mh, D bot = 1.92mh, Dend = 1.99mh (6)

By selecting the parameters of the sinusoidal beam and the semi-

circular arches properly, the stiffness of the metastructure at different
regions can be designed to obtain an appropriate static stiffness for
supporting the isolated weight and a quasi-zero dynamic stiffness for
vibration isolation performance.
Fig. 4. Non-dimensional force–displacement curve of the semicircular arch.

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H. Fan, et al. Composite Structures 243 (2020) 112244

Table 1
Parameters of the fabricated metastructure samples.
Sample (m,n) Unit cell/mm

l1 t1 h b1 l2 t2 R b2 t

S1 (3,4) 40 0.8 5 5 25 1.34 6.25 5 5

S2 (4,5) 30 0.5 3 5 15 0.68 3.75 5 5

Fig. 7. Samples of the unit cells.

3. Static characteristics of the metastructures

3.1. Samples fabrication via 3D printing

In this paper, three different unit cells U1, U2 and U3 are designed
to present positive, quasi-zero and negative stiffness respectively. The
parameters of these unit cells are all the same having l1 = 100 mm,
t1 = 2 mm, h = 12 mm, b1 = 10 mm, l2 = 60 mm, R = 15 mm,
b2 = 10 mm, t = 10 mm except that t2 = 3.8 mm, 3.1 mm and 2.2 mm
for U1, U2 and U3 respectively. Then, two different samples of metas-
tructures with different (m,n) and different parameters are designed to
study their static characteristics. The unit cells and metastructures as
shown in Figs. 7 and 8 are fabricated by FDM additive manufacturing
technology and the parameters of the metastructure samples have been Fig. 9. Tensile test result of the TPU printed sample.
listed in Table 1. Thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) have been used as
the constitute material for fabricating the samples. TPU is an important
obtain the force–displacement curves and the compression processes
engineering material and has been used extensively in various in-
are recorded by digital cameras. Additionally, the compression ex-
dustries. Its high toughness improves designability of the metas-
periment results of the metastructures will be used to verify the fol-
tructures. As shown in Fig. 9, stress–strain curve of the constitute ma-
lowing numerical analysis.
terial has been obtained by conducting tensile test on the dog-bone
specimen printed with the same TPU used for the metastructures fab-
3.3. Numerical simulations
rication based on the ASTM D638-14[24]. Note that the specimen was
printed with fibers aligned with the loading direction. As it can be seen
Finite element analysis is performed to investigate mechanical
in Fig. 9 that TPU material exhibits approximate hyperelastic proper-
properties of the metastructures under compression, using the com-
ties. Then, all the samples in this paper are designed to ensure that their
mercial FEM package ABAQUS/Standard. As shown in Fig. 10, the
stress level is always in elastic region under the whole compression
metastructures are modeled by 20-node quadratic brick, reduced in-
deformation process. Since the metastructures fabricated in this paper
tegration solid elements (C3D20R), with mesh sensitivity convergence
experience relatively small strains in the following experiments, the
study performed to ensure accuracy. Hyper-elastic material is adopted
Young's modulus of printed TPU is extracted as E = 49.5 MPa as shown
in the simulations and the material parameters are obtained from the
in Fig. 9.
former tensile test results in Fig. 9. Geometrical nonlinearity is con-
sidered owing to the buckling behavior of the structures. To simulate
3.2. Quasi-static compression experiments the actual behavior of the metastructures under compression, the
bottom surface of the structure is constrained in all six degrees of
Uniaxial compression experiments are performed on the unit cell freedom including three translations and three rotations, the top
and metastructure samples to investigate their mechanical properties
with a uniaxial testing machine. All compression experiments are
conducted under displacement control until the samples are fully
compacted. The reaction force–displacement responses are captured to

Fig. 8. Samples of the metastructures. Fig. 10. Finite element model of S1.

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H. Fan, et al. Composite Structures 243 (2020) 112244

Fig. 11. Behavior of the unit cell sample under vertical displacement.

surface is coupled with a reference point and constrained in five degrees

of freedom except the translation in the compression direction. A pre-
scribed displacement is applied to the reference point in the static
general step to simulate the compression process of the structure. It
should be noted that in the theoretical analysis, stiffening walls of the
metastructures are supposed to be rigid. It means that the left and right
edges of the structure are all constrained and only the translation in the
compression direction is allowed. However, in the compression ex-
periments, the left and right edges of the structure are free and their
stiffening walls will experience small deformation. Thus, these two
different boundary conditions are both considered in the numerical
simulations, as shown in Fig. 10. For the theoretical analysis simula-
tions, the left and right edges of the structure are set as constrained
boundary (CB). While for the experiment simulations, they are set as
free boundary (FB).

3.4. Results and discussion

The sample U2 is taken as an example to present behavior of these Fig. 12. Force-displacement curves of U2 at different loading speeds.
unit cells at different vertical displacements as show in Fig. 11. The
outer frame fabricated by PLA is used to enhance the stiffening wall in
order to prevent horizontal expansion of the sinusoidal beam. The ex-
periments are conducted under displacement control at three different
loading–unloading speeds as 0.5, 1 and 2 mm/min. The vertical dis-
placement and reaction force obtained from sample U2 at different
loading speeds are shown in Fig. 12 in order to analyze the loading
speed effect on the response of the unit cell. As it can be seen that
difference among the response curves corresponding to different
loading speeds is quite small. It can be concluded that structural be-
havior of the unit cell is independent on the deformation rate, sug-
gesting that the unit cell sample U2 is a quasi-zero stiffness structure
but not a general cushioning material. Then, the vertical displacement
and reaction force obtained from samples U1, U2 and U3 are shown in
Fig. 13 to further verify this. It shows that the unit cell can exhibit
positive, quasi-zero and negative stiffness properties at region Ⅱ as
shown in Fig. 6 through a proper designing process. For sample U1,
absolute value of the positive stiffness 2 kb obtained from semicircular
arches is larger than that of the negative stiffness ka2 obtained from
sinusoidal beam. It yields a positive stiffness for the unit cell U1 with
k2 > 0 according to Eq. (4). Similarly, for samples U2 and U3, absolute Fig. 13. Force-displacement curves of unit cell samples U1, U2 and U3.
value of the positive stiffness 2 kb is almost equal to and smaller than
that of the negative stiffness ka2, yielding a quasi-zero stiffness with the inherent attributes of raw materials based on above analysis.
k2 → 0 and a negative stiffness with k2 < 0 for U2 and U3 respectively. Responses of the metastructure samples at different vertical dis-
It has demonstrated that the unique quasi-zero stiffness property is placements are captured and compared with the corresponding
decided by the configuration of internal periodic unit cells rather than

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H. Fan, et al. Composite Structures 243 (2020) 112244

Fig. 14. Comparison between structure responses obtained by experiment and simulation for S1.

simulation results, as shown in Fig. 14 and Fig. 16. It shows that de-
formation modes of these metastructures under vertical displacement
are well reflected by the simulation process. In each unit cell, the si-
nusoidal beam experiences a snap-through behavior and the semi-
circular arches experience a bending dominated deformation. For inner
unit cells of the samples, like the representative illustration “A” in
Figs. 14 and 16, the sinusoidal beams experience classic symme-
trical buckling behavior in the compression process, which can produce
native stiffness properties as in Fig. 3. Compared to the ideal symme-
trical deformation behavior obtained from simulation result, the sym-
metrical deformation behavior in the experiment result is a little af-
fected by the fabrication imperfections. However, for the left and right
edges of the samples, like the representative illustration “B” in Figs. 14
and 16, the sinusoidal beams experience asymmetric buckling behavior.
This phenomenon will prevent the sinusoidal beams to present native
stiffness properties, leading to detrimental effects on the quasi-zero
stiffness property of the metastructure. Since the asymmetric bucking
just occurs at the edges of the structure, as the number of the unit cells
increases gradually, the detrimental effects on the quasi-zero stiffness Fig. 15. Force-displacement curves obtained from theoretical solution, experi-
property will become quite small. ment and simulations for S1.
The vertical displacement and reaction force of the metastructures
in the compression experiments are recorded and compared with the boundary condition under compression are carried out and used to
theoretical and simulation results, as shown in Figs. 15 and 17. The verify the theoretical results of the mechanical behavior. As we can see
theoretical results in Figs. 15 and 17 obtained by Eqs. (5) and (6) are that in both the theoretical and simulation results, reaction force of the
basis for us to design the metastructure samples S1 and S2 possessing metastructure will increase quickly as the compression displacement
quasi-zero stiffness property. Simulations of the samples with CB increases during the initial stage. It’s because that in the initial stage,

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H. Fan, et al.
Fig. 16. Comparison between structure responses obtained by experiment and simulation for S2.
Fig. 17. Force-displacement curves obtained from theoretical solution, experi-
ment and simulations for S2.
the sinusoidal beam and semicircular arches of each unit cell both act as
linear spring with positive stiffness. When the compression displace-
ment increases beyond the initial stage, the positive stiffness of the
metastructure will suddenly decrease to a quasi-zero level. This is be-
cause that as the vertical displacement exceeds a certain value, the si-
nusoidal beam of the unit cell will experience a snapping through be-
havior, resulting in a negative stiffness property of the beam. If the
positive stiffness of the semicircular arches is nearly equal to the ne-
gative stiffness of the sinusoidal beam, the total stiffness of the
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Composite Structures 243 (2020) 112244
metastructure will be quasi-zero then. As the compression displacement
continues to increase, the metastructure will experience another sudden
stiffness shift from quasi-zero to positive. This is because that the si-
nusoidal beams have snapped to another stable state and the metas-
tructure approaches to fully compacted gradually.
Comparing the theoretical solution and simulation results with CB
boundary condition in Figs. 15 and 17, we can find that the theoretical
and simulation results exhibit a good agreement with each other, except
for the areas of that two transition points between positive and quasi-
zero stiffness. This is because that in the simulation analysis, large
deflection and nonlinear effects are all considered, while the theoretical
model is based on the small deformation hypothesis. Thus, the simu-
lation analysis results in a nonlinear force–displacement curve and the
theoretical solution results in a linear one. As the l1/h of the sinusoidal
beam becomes larger, the nonlinear effects will become smaller and the
theoretical and simulation results will get closer. It should be noted that
even there is discrepancy between the theoretical and simulation results
at the transition areas, the theoretical solution can also present the
quasi-zero stiffness property of the metastructures accurately. It verifies
that when designing the quasi-zero dynamic stiffness metastructures,
the theoretical model in this paper can be used to effectively assess their
quasi-zero stiffness mechanical properties.
The force–displacement curves obtained from experiments and si-
mulation results with FB boundary condition in Figs. 15 and 17 exhibit
an excellent agreement with each other, except for the compacted stage
caused by the fabrication imperfections. Compared to the theoretical
and simulation results with CB boundary condition, the quasi-zero
stiffness properties of the experiment and simulation results with FB
boundary condition are a little weakened because the quasi-zero stiff-
nesses obtained in the experiment and simulation results with FB
H. Fan, et al. Composite Structures 243 (2020) 112244

boundary condition are a little higher than that obtained in the theo-
retical and simulation results with CB boundary condition. This dele-
terious effect is mainly attribute to different boundary conditions that
the left and right edges of the structure are constrained or free. As we
have mentioned that as the number of the unit cells increases gradually,
the boundary condition effects will become much smaller. This also can
be verified by the force–displacement curves of samples S1 and S2. For
sample S1 whose quasi-zero stiffness region is approximately between
D = 5 mm and 25 mm, the maximum difference between simulation
results of CB and FB boundary conditions is 11.5%. While for sample S1
whose quasi-zero stiffness region is approximately between D = 3 mm
and 20 mm, the maximum difference is 8.1%. It verifies that the
boundary effects become smaller as the number of the unit cells in-
creases. Then, we can conclude that simulation results corresponding to
CB boundary condition are representative to the quasi-zero stiffness
property of the presented metastructures with more unit cells.

4. Dynamic analysis of the metastructures

Fig. 18. Transmissibility of the linear and the QZS metastructures for S1.
4.1. Transmissibility of the metastructures

Based on the analysis of static mechanical characteristics, vibration

isolation property of the designed metastructure is researched. Results
of the static characteristics analysis have shown that the mechanical
behavior of the metastructure under vertical displacement contains
three regions, as indicate in Fig. 6, including a quasi-zero stiffness re-
gion Ⅱ and two approximately linear stiffness regions Ⅰ and III. For an
object that resting on the metastructure to be isolated from vibrations,
it’s weight will be mainly supported by the approximately linear stiff-
ness in region Ⅰ. As a vibration excitation acts on the metastructure, the
object will be isolated effectively relying on the quasi-zero stiffness in
region Ⅱ. In order to investigate vibration isolation characteristics of
the metastructure, dynamic properties of samples S1 and S2 in this
paper are studied. The samples are assumed to support an object on the
top surface and subjected to a displacement control vibration excitation
on the bottom surface. To realize desired isolation performance, the
approximately linear stiffness in region Ⅰ should be designed to pri-
marily support the object and ensure that the metastructure will locate
at region Ⅱ under the static weight of the object. Thus, the object with
mass M to be isolated by the metastructure should
satisfyMg ∈ (K1 Dtop , K1 Dtop + K2 (D bot − Dtop)) with the parameters de- Fig. 19. Transmissibility of the linear and the QZS metastructures for S2.
fined in Eqs. (5) and (6). The middle point in region Ⅱ is selected in this
paper and relation between the isolated object and the metastructure is
thus obtained as Mg = K1 Dtop + K2 (D bot − Dtop)/2 . For samples S1 and
S2 in this paper, the corresponding isolated objects will be calculated
respectively according to Table 1 then.
The most important index to describe the performance of an isolator
is transmissibility. It is introduced in this paper to evaluate the vibra-
tion isolation properties of the metastructures. Suppose that the bottom
of the metastructure is subjected to a displacement control vibration
excitation Z = Z0coswt, where Z0 is the vibration amplitude and w is the
vibration frequency. Under isolation of the metastructure, the vibration
amplitude Z1 on the top of the metastructure can be obtained. The
transmissibility is defined as T = Z1/ Z0 to evaluate the vibration iso-
lation performance of the metastructure. For traditional linear spring
isolators, transmissibility can be derived as

K 2 + c 2w 2
T=
(K − Mw 2)2 + c 2w 2 (7)

where K is the linear stiffness of the spring and c is the damping of
the spring material. For the metastructure in this paper, the properly
designed quasi-zero stiffness is the key property that ensuring the vi-
bration isolation performance. In fact, the quasi-zero stiffness is also
approximately linear with a quite small stiffness K2 as presented in Eq.
(5). Therefore, the transmissibility of the metastructure can be obtained
Fig. 20. Finite element model of S2 in vibration isolation simulations.
by Eq. (7) in which K should be replaced by K2. In order to demonstrate
the vibration isolation performance of the presented metastructure with
QZS property, an equivalent linear spring isolator with stiffness of K1 is

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H. Fan, et al.
Fig. 21. Displacements on top of the isolated object and bottom of the QZS metastructure for S1.
introduced because the weight of the isolated object is primarily sup-
ported by K1 for the metastructure. Comparison with equivalent linear
isolator is an effective way to verify the vibration isolation performance
for a newly designed QZS structure [5,7,9,11]. The transmissibility of
the linear spring isolator can also be obtained from Eq. (7) by replacing
K with K1.
4.2. Comparison between QZS metastructure and linear isolator
Transmissibility of the linear spring isolator and the QZS
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Composite Structures 243 (2020) 112244
metastructure samples S1 and S2 corresponding to different damping
coefficients have been plotted in Figs. 18 and 19 respectively. All the
transmissibility results are plotted in dB, i.e. as 20log10T. The vibration
excitation frequency is expressed in the non-dimensional form as
Ω = w/wn, where wn = K1/ M . Non-dimensional damping coefficient
of the metastructure is defined as β = c /2 K1 M . As we know that a
good vibration isolator should simultaneously achieve wide effective
isolation range and low transmissibility. Effective isolation range means
that the transmissibility should be smaller than zero, ensuring that the
vibration amplitude of the isolated object is smaller than the excitation
H. Fan, et al.
Fig. 22. Displacements on top of the isolated object and bottom of the QZS metastructure for S2.
amplitude. As shown in Figs. 18 and 19, for the linear isolator, effective
isolation range should satisfy Ω > 1.414. While for the presented QZS
metastructure samples S1 and S2, effective isolation range should sa-
tisfy Ω > 0.165 and Ω > 0.197 respectively. It verifies that the
presented QZS metastructure has a much wider effective isolation
range, indicating that compared to the linear isolator, the QZS metas-
tructure can be effectively used for vibration isolation in a rather low
vibration frequency even much smaller than the natural frequency wn.
Besides the wider effective isolation range, the QZS metastructure also
has a lower transmissibility. As it can be seen that the peak
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Composite Structures 243 (2020) 112244
transmissibility of QZS metastructure at resonance frequency corre-
sponding to different damping coefficients are all smaller than that of
the linear isolator. Besides the peak transmissibility, for a vibration
frequency which locates at the effective isolation ranges for both the
QZS metastructure and the linear isolator, the transmissibility of QZS
metastructure is also much smaller than that of the linear isolator, until
the vibration frequency approaches a very large value like Ω = 100.
For example, at the vibration frequency Ω = 2, for the same damping
coefficient β = 0.01, transmissibility of the linear isolator is −9.5 dB,
of sample S1 is −39.5 dB, of sample S2 is −39.1 dB. It means that for
H. Fan, et al. Composite Structures 243 (2020) 112244

Fig. 23. Dynamic behavior of S2 with Ω = 0.5 and β = 0.1.

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H. Fan, et al. Composite Structures 243 (2020) 112244

Table 2
Non-dimensional transmissibility of simulation results.
S1 S2

Ω 0.5 1 2 0.5 1 2
β 0.05 0.1 0.05 0.1 0.05 0.1 0.01 0.1 0.01 0.1 0.01 0.1
T 0.25 0.45 0.12 0.25 0.063 0.12 0.13 0.44 0.040 0.22 0.015 0.11

For both the QZS metastructure and the linear isolator, when a vibra-
tion frequency lies outside the effective isolation range, i.e. Ω < 1.414
for the linear isolator, Ω < 0.165 for S1 and Ω < 0.197 for S2, the
transmissibility will decrease as the damping coefficient increases. But
for a vibration frequency lies in the effective isolation range, the
transmissibility will increase as the damping coefficient increases.
Comparison between the QZS metastructure and the linear isolator
shows that in the effective isolation range, the damping coefficient has
larger effects on the QZS metastructure than the linear isolator. It in-
dicates that a QZS metastructure with smaller damping coefficient
material will have a better vibration isolation performance.

4.4. Vibration isolation simulations of the QZS metastructures

Fig. 24. Theoretical and simulation results of transmissibility for S1.
Fig. 25. Theoretical and simulation results of transmissibility for S2.
the same vibration excitation amplitude Z0, the response amplitude Z1
of the linear isolator is 0.33Z0, of samples S1 and S2 is 0.01Z0. There-
fore, comparison between QZS metastructure and linear isolator has
shown that the presented QZS metastructure simultaneously exhibits
wide effective isolation range and low transmissibility, an excellent
vibration isolation performance has been achieved by the QZS metas-
tructure.
4.3. Effect of the damping coefficient
As shown in Figs. 18 and 19, the damping coefficient has no effects
on the resonance frequency and effective isolation range of the QZS
metastructure and the linear isolator. While, their transmissibility at
different vibration frequency is influenced by the damping coefficient.
Finite element analysis has been carried out to simulate the vibra-
tion isolation performance of the metastructure samples S1 and S2.
Fig. 20 shows the finite element model of S2 containing the isolated
object and the metastructure which is the same as in section 3.3. The
whole simulation process is divided into two steps. In the first step, the
metastructure is compressed under weight of the isolated object with
the bottom surface fully constrained. This step will lead the metas-
tructure into quasi-zero stiffness region. In the second step, the bottom
surface will be changed from fully constrained to displacement control
vibration excitation. The boundary condition on left and right edges of
the metastructure is defined as CB in the whole simulations process
since the transmissibility in Figs. 18 and 19 has been derived based on
that condition. The vibration excitation amplitude Z0 is set as 5 mm and
materials with different damping coefficients are defined in the me-
tastructure model. Three different vibration excitation frequencies lo-
cating at the effective isolation range of S1 and S2 are selected as
Ω = 0.5, Ω = 1 and Ω = 2. Then, displacements of the isolated object
and the bottom surface of the metastructure are recorded during the
second step in order to evaluate the vibration isolation performance
corresponding to different vibration frequencies and damping coeffi-
cients.
The recorded displacements on top of the isolated object and bottom
of the QZS metastructure for S1 and S2 with different vibration fre-
quencies and damping coefficients are shown in Figs. 21 and 22. Par-
ticularly, the sample S2 with Ω = 0.5 and β = 0.1 is taken as an ex-
ample to characterize dynamic behavior of the metastructure by
plotting simulation results at different times in two harmonic compo-
nents from t1 to t8 with equal interval as shown in Fig. 23.
Simulation results in Figs. 21 and 22 have shown the vibration
isolation performance of the metastructure intuitively. Vibration am-
plitude of the isolated object has been significantly reduced by isolation
of the metastructure. It can also be seen that for the same vibration
excitation frequency, the metastructure with a smaller damping coef-
ficient material can achieve a better vibration isolation performance.
While for the same damping coefficient material, the metastructure
under a higher vibration excitation frequency will achieve a better vi-
bration isolation performance. In Fig. 23, the simulated dynamic be-
haviors of the metastructure from t1 to t4 can be regarded as the same
with that from t5 to t8. Since the dynamic behaviors from t1 to t4 cor-
respond to the first harmonic component and the dynamic behaviors
from t5 to t8 correspond to the second one, it means that as a vibration
excitation acts on the metastructure, the isolated object will be sub-
jected to the same vibration frequency but a smaller vibration

12
H. Fan, et al.
amplitude. Therefore, it verifies the vibration isolation performance
realized by this metastructure. For each curve in Figs. 21 and 22, as the
isolated object behavior tends to be stable, the vibration amplitude will
be obtained as Z1 and the transmissibility can be calculated as T = Z1/
Z0 then. The non-dimensional transmissibility obtained from simulation
results of S1 and S2 corresponding to different vibration excitation
frequencies and damping coefficients has been listed in Table 2. Then,
the non-dimensional transmissibility in Table 2 has been transformed in
dB and plotted in Figs. 24 and 25. The corresponding theoretical results
are introduced and compared with the simulation ones. As it can be
seen that the simulation results of the transmissibility coincide very
well with the theoretical ones, which verifies the excellent vibration
isolation property of the presented QZS metastructure in this paper.
5. Conclusions
A metastructure with quasi-zero dynamic stiffness used for vibration
isolation has been designed and investigated in this paper. Static
characteristic and dynamic behavior of the metastructure have been
studied combining theoretical, experiment and simulation methods.
The vibration isolation performance of the presented metastructure has
been evaluated and compared with linear isolator. Results show that
the presented QZS metastructure exhibits excellent vibration isolation
performance and has great potential in the vibration isolation appli-
cations for the small-scale equipment as continuous structures or ma-
terials. Summarizing the main contents of our research, some conclu-
sions may be drawn as follows.
(1) A unit cell possessing quasi-zero stiffness property can be realized
by designing the sinusoidal beam and semicircular arches properly.
Theoretical solution on mechanical behavior of the metastructure
consisting of numerous unit cells is derived.
(2) Quasi-static compression experiments on the unit cell and metas-
tructure samples fabricated by FDM additive manufacturing tech-
nology and corresponding simulation analyses show that the fab-
ricated metastructures exhibit desiring quasi-zero stiffness property
which agrees well with the theoretical and simulation results.
(3) Free boundary condition on the left and right edges of the metas-
tructure has deleterious effects on the quasi-zero stiffness property
compared to constrained boundary condition. But the effects be-
come smaller as the number of unit cells increases gradually.
(4) Dynamic analysis and the calculated transmissibility show that a
much wider effective isolation range and lower transmissibility can
be obtained by the presented metastructure compared to the linear
isolator. An excellent vibration isolation performance can be
achieved by the presented metastructure.
(5) In effective isolation range, the transmissibility will increase as the
damping coefficient increases, indicating that a QZS metastructure
with smaller damping coefficient material will have a better vi-
bration isolation performance.
(6) Simulation results about vibration isolation performance of the
metastructure show that vibration amplitude of the isolated object
has been significantly reduced by the metastructure. The metas-
tructure with a smaller damping coefficient under a higher vibra-
tion excitation frequency will achieve better vibration isolation
performance.
The metastructure presented in this paper is general and could be
realized by different raw materials. Future developments include fab-
ricating more complex three-dimensional metastructures based on this
unit cell for better application.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Haigui Fan: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software,
Investigation, Data curation, Writing - original draft, Visualization,
13
Composite Structures 243 (2020) 112244
Supervision. Lijuan Yang: Investigation, Writing - review & editing.
Yuchen Tian: Investigation. Zewu Wang: Validation.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
ence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
This research is supported by the National Key Research and
Development Program of China (No. 2018YFA0704604) and the
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No.
DUT19JC19) and the Project funded by China Postdoctoral Science
Foundation (No. 2019M651112).
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