Identification of wire rope isolators using the restoring force surface method

The restoring force surface method offers an efficient and reliable identification of non-linear single-degree-of-freedom systems. The method may be extended to multidegree-of-freedom systems but by loosing the key advantage of the method which lies in the two-dimensional representation for single-degree-of-freedom systems. An experimental application of the restoring force surface method is considered in the present paper. The structure investigated consists of wire rope isolators mounted between a load mass and a base mass. These helical isolators were found to be characterised by a non-linear behaviour. The results obtained are discussed in details and the advantages and drawbacks of the method are underlined.