Modelling of the internal structure and mechanical properties of isolator with metal cushion as elastic damping elements

The paper mainly adopts simulation analysis to consider the contact friction form and characteristics of the metal cushions from the perspective of the microstructure model. It models the metal wire contacts, and then deduces the microstructure to the macro model by analysing the internal structure of the metal cushions. The overall idea is mainly to abstract a three-dimensional model with regular internal structure arrangement that is easy to study based on the preparation process and microstructure composition of the metal cushions. Furtherly, contact simulation is carried out by using finite element method, and the mechanical characteristics of the metal cushion are obtained. The validation of the model for the description of the metal cushion internal structure is verified by combining solid contact theory. The results indicate that the special characteristics of metal cushion such as hysteretic behaviour, nonlinear stiffness, and dry friction damping property are predicted by the model, with the comparison between the theoretically calculated and simulated results yielding differences in numerical values lower than 3% under the assumptions considered in this paper.