Steady compression characteristics of laminated MRE isolator

Abstract

This paper focused on an experimental setup on laminated magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) isolator under steady state compression test. An isotropic type natural rubber (NR) based MRE were fabricated and layered with a steel plate to form a multilayer sandwich structure adopted from the conventional laminated rubber bearing design. A set of static compression test was conducted to explore the potential of semi-active laminated MRE isolator in field-dependent stiffness properties. Stress versus strain relationship was assessed under different magnetic fields application. Based on the examination, the stress altered as the application of magnetic fields. Consequently, the effective stiffness of isolator also influenced by the magnetic fields induction. The experimental results show that the proposed laminated MRE isolator can effectively alter the compression stiffness up to the 14.56%. The preliminary results have confirmed the tunability of the semi-active laminated MRE isolator in which it would be beneficial for improving building isolator in general.