50 J.-J. Lou et al.
from a marine vessel in [2]. Experimental chaos in nonlinear vibration isolation
system was observed, and the possible practical application of the chaos method
in line spectra reduction was confirmed in [3]. In this work, the method of chaotic
vibration isolation for reduction of line spectrum is numerically studied.
As is well known, noise spectra of the radiated waterborne noise of surface and
under-surface ships are generally in two categories. One is the broad-band noise hav-
ing a continuous spectrum. The other is the line spectrum which contains lines at
discrete frequencies. The nature of the radiated noise spectra changes as the naviga-
tion speed changes. At high speed, the signature is dominated by broad-band noise,
while at low speed the signature is dominated by line spectrum, and the machinery
is the leading noisemaker.
Insertion of resilient isolators between the machinery and the base is one of the
most common methods for controlling unwanted vibration. Isolators in service are
usually assumed to be linear and the performance characteristics of isolators under
the assumption of linearity have been widely reported [4, 5]. The linear vibration
isolation system has vibration attenuation within a rather wide frequency range. But
its ability in line spectrum reduction is limited.
Thus it becomes important to include nonlinearity presented in practical isola-
tors. Because of the limitations of the linear vibration isolators, nonlinear isolators
were studied in some literatures. However, the investigation was constrained to the
periodic vibration [6,7]. In spite of the achievement in the application of the chaotic
vibration mechanics to chaotic vibratory rollers [8], it is neglected that vibration
excitation and vibration isolation are two sides in the field of vibration engineering.
And no efforts are made to make use of chaos in vibration isolation. The authors
tried to utilize the characteristics of chaos to vibration isolation, and a method of
chaotic vibration isolation was advanced for machinery vibration control and line
spectra reduction [2]. When chaos takes place in a nonlinear vibration isolation
system under a single frequency excitation, the line spectrum of response at the
excitation frequency grows into a broad-band one. Therefore, the frequency config-
uration of the radiated noise is altered. What is more important, the concentrated
energy spreads from the excitation frequency to a broad-band frequency range. To
validate the effectiveness of the method of chaotic vibration isolation, the dynamics
and the power flow transmissibility of the two-degree-of-freedom nonlinear vibra-
tion isolation system is studied in the present work.
6.2 Model of the Two-Degree-of-Freedom Nonlinear
Vibration Isolation System
A majority of stationary equipments are installed by means of vibration isolators
attached to rigid supporting structures. There have been numerous publications that
used a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) system to model both active and passive
vibration isolation systems [9, 10]. However, some stationary equipments requiring
vibration isolation are installed on nonrigid structures such as higher floors of