On the attainable performance of shock control by visco-elastic bumper

Modern visco-elastic materials, composed of energy absorbing alloys are used widely for shock control The simplest visco-elastic bumper may provide the low-rebound and soft trim of undesirable mechanical deflections without generation of dangerous impact accelerations.In the present paper, the simplified model of a single collision of a free lumped body with the both linear and nonlinear “Kelvin-Voigt” bumper was considered. The analytical solution, describing the dynamics of impact in the linear case was obtained. The parameters of the optimal linear shock absorber along with the attainable performance were estimated.The enhancement of the capability of shock control was achieved by the use of nonlinear visco-elastic bumper. With the help of the numerical simulation it was shown that the use of the damped softening nonlinear bumper might improve the ability of the bumper to control the peak acceleration and restitution ratio. The approach to the problem of synthesis of the optimal nonlinear bumper was made.