Mehran Shahraeeni
Mehran received his Master’s degree from the Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, in 2015. He moved to New Zealand in 2022 after almost six years working in the power and energy industry. Currently, he is a PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Auckland, and his research focuses on the design and fabrication of nonlinear vibration isolators with tunable stiffness and damping.
Description of the research:
Nonlinear vibration isolators that take advantage of negative stiffness elements can provide high static stiffness to bear high static loads and low dynamic stiffness to widen the isolation frequency band and, hence are more desirable than linear vibration isolators. This research aims to design, fabricate, and validate a nonlinear vibration isolator with tunable stiffness and damping. A nonlinear magnetic spring with negative stiffness in parallel with mechanical springs is used to reduce the dynamic stiffness of the system, whereas eddy current damping and electromagnetic shunt damping strategies are employed for vibration suppression, as is shown in the schematic figure on the left. The vibration isolator prototype fabricated and tested at the vibration research lab is also shown in the figure. This research is still ongoing and further updates and information will be made available soon.