REDUCTION OF THE VIBRATION OF A HOME AIR CONDITIONER BY FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS AND HOMOGENIZATION METHOD

摘要

Major noise sources of a home air conditioner are fan and compressor. Fan generates air flow noise mainly and compressor is the main source of the vibration induced noise. In this study, finite element analysis, a method for design of experiment and a topology optimization method were used to find optimum shape of rubber mount, copper pipe and compressor base plate of a home air conditioner. For designing the shape of rubber mount and pipe, overall best shapes were found first and then sensitivity analysis was carried out to find the details. In designing the compressor base plate, bead shape, number of beads and their locations were found using sensitivity analysis and a topology optimization method was applied for further improvement. Analysis results showed that the vibration of the air conditioner was reduced significantly when the modified parts were employed. Experimental results showed good agreement with those of the analysis and consequently, the noise generated by the air conditioner was reduced by 3dB.