THE BIRTH OF A REVOLUTIONARY VIBRATION ISOLATION TECHNOLOGY
Z-Damper is a vibration isolation system able to act as a dissipater and also to enhance the performance of any damping solution by mechanical impedance coupling.
This magneto mechanism is adaptable to low and high ranges of frequencies and it can substitute tuned vibration absorbers currently being used for the vibration control in automotive, energy or seismic applications.
Unlike other existing damping technologies, Z-Damper is capable of maintaining an optimum performance at extreme temperatures.
The EU funded FP7 Clean Sky program is boosting new technologies in order to improve safety and reduce the contamination levels of the aircraft systems. One of Clean Sky major projects is the development of a new counter-rotating open-rotor (CROR) engine capable of minimizing both noise and fuel consumption.
As the main project partner, Airbus is searching for technologies able to meet the exigent standards required for this large-scale project. Specifically, the fuselage-mounted turbofans need a very efficient isolation system to assure a reduction in the transmission of the vibrations to the aircraft structure. However, present damping technologies have a big limitation: they are not able to operate at the extreme temperature that the rotor engine may reach.
MAG SOAR in collaboration with Universidad de Alcalá has developed and tested three different prototypes specially optimized to reach Airbus requirements. Z-DAMPER project final meeting took place in UAH facilities. MAG SOAR and UAH researchers exposed to Airbus engineers the excellent vibration mitigation results obtained from the static and dynamic tests at temperatures up to 200ºC.
Airbus, UAH and MAG SOAR teams were clearly satisfied by Z-DAMPER potential. “Z-Damper has demonstrated a unique damping performance, even in extreme temperature environments. We have insight the birth of a new vibration isolation technology which applications are only starting to be foreseen”, stated Dr. Valiente, technical director of MAG SOAR and main project technical partner.
