An efficient method for estimating the damping ratio of a vibration isolation system

As the damping ratio determines the response of a vibration isolation system at resonance, it is very necessary to estimate the damping ratio quickly and economically for an evaluation of the effectiveness to adjust the damping in practical engineering applications. An efficient method named the “ζ-Tr” method with the characteristics of simple operation and a high accuracy is introduced to estimate the damping ratio in this paper. According to the transmissibility curve, the specific mathematical relationship in which the value of the resonance peak corresponds to the value of the damping ratio is analysed theoretically. In this case, the recognition of the resonance peak can be used to directly estimate the damping ratio without an approximation or simplification. The “ζ-Tr” method is faster, more accurate and less costly than other estimation methods. Finally, the correctness of the “ζ-Tr” method is verified by a simulation and an experiment.