BASIC OPTIMAL SHOCK ISOLATION: SINGLE-DEGREE-OF-FREEDOM SYSTEMS - Injury Biomechanics and Control: Optimal Protection from Impact - page 49

CHAPTER 3
BASIC OPTIMAL SHOCK ISOLATION:
SINGLE-DEGREE-OF-FREEDOM
SYSTEMS
This chapter presents fundamental concepts, methods, and results of
optimal shock isolation theory. The concepts will be illustrated using a
single-degree-of-freedom system, since this can often adequately model
realistic situations if the base moves translationally and is subject to
a shock deceleration such that the deformation of the object to be
isolated is small and the responses associated with the propagation of
elastic waves are unimportant. Also, single-degree-of-freedom models
allow a number of important optimal isolation problems to be solved
analytically, which eases the analysis and interpretation of the results.
Solutions of optimal shock isolation problems for single-degree-of-freedom
models identify qualitative features of shock isolation strategies that are
preserved for more complicated, multi-degree-of-freedom systems. Shock
isolation strategies designed for single-degree-of-freedom systems can
serve as a basis for constructing control algorithms for shock isolators in
multi-degree-of-freedom systems. A number of important problems for
systems with several degrees of freedom related to human biomechanics
will be solved in subsequent chapters of this topic. For a comprehensive
systematic presentation of the theory of optimal shock isolation, see Sevin
and Pilkey (1971) and Balandin, Bolotnik, and Pilkey (2001). The latter
topic presents historical perspectives of the development of this theory and
contains an extensive bibliography.