This paper considers the use of a chain of translating carts or housings having internally rotating eccentric masses in order to accomplish vibration isolation. First a single degree-of-freedom system is harmonically excited to uncover the qualitative behavior of each rotating mass. The simple model is then expanded into a chain of housings, containing rotating eccentric masses, which are interconnected with springs. The internal rotating eccentric masses are damped along their circular pathway by means of linear viscous damping. Due to the lack of elastic or gravitational constraint on the rotating eccentric masses, they provide a nonlinear inertial coupling to their housings. Previous research has shown that such systems are capable of reducing shock or impulsive loading by converting some of the translational kinetic energy into rotational kinetic energy of the internal masses. This paper examines the potential for vibration isolation of a chain of such systems subjected to persistent, harmonic excitation. It is seen that the dynamics of these systems is very complicated, but that trends are observed which have implications for practical isolation systems. Using simulation studies, tradeoffs are examined between displacement and transmitted force for a range of physical parameter values.
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