Shock and Vibration Mounting System using Electroactive Polymers with an Interpenetrating Polymer Network

To achieve the level of acoustic stealth required by the DD(X) a system of isolation mounts is required that can be used throughout the ship to minimize the transmission of vibration energy from machinery and electronics to the ship's hull. This system will also need to protect equipment from the effects of shock, and prevent vibrations from the hull being transmitted to sensitive acoustic interrogation systems. Infoscitex (IST) is proposing to implement a revolutionary method for integrating both active and passive damping of shock and vibrations into a single mounting system. Vibrations traveling between equipment and the ship's hull will be actively cancelled using dynamically controlled electroactive polymers (EAP). These EAP devices will be built using stacks of dielectric elastomers (DE) separated by compliant electrodes. In addition to being controllable, these DEs will also be engineered to include an interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) that will provide superior passive damping performance over a wide range of environmental temperatures and vibrational frequencies. This combination of material technologies will result in an electrodynamically driven rubber mount which will allow shock and vibrations to be damped more effectively than with conventional mounting systems.