ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the design of optimal single-degree-of-freedom shock isolators. The design process employs the results of a limiting performance analysis of the single-degreeof-freedom system subject to the anticipated disturbance. Ideally, the optimal isolator is a feedback isolator which implements the control corresponding to the limiting performance. The design of such an optimal isolator can be exceedingly difficult or impossible to achieve with the isolator hardware options available to the designer. In such cases, a suboptimal isolator can be designed, verifying, to be sure, that the isolator performs reasonably close to the limiting performance. In this chapter, we consider isolators for systems subject to instantaneous shocks. The isolators can consist of a pneumatic spring, a hydraulic damper, and a Coulomb damper. Examples of optimal isolator designs are presented for a railroad car coupler, an aircraft landing gear, and the barrel of an artillery gun.
