Proposal of the five points support method for suppressing vibration transmission from compressor to refrigerator

Abstract

In order to reduce the power consumption of the household refrigerator further, it is necessary to control the rotation frequency of a reciprocating compressor as low as possible. However, several natural frequencies of the compressor exist in the low rotation frequency region. Therefore, the resonance occur in the compressor due to the unbalance force arising from the piston motion synchronous with rotation frequency, and then the vibration of the compressor may be transmitted to the refrigerator. In this study, the compressor was set on a steel plate for experiment, and the vibration characteristic of the compressor supported by means of conventional four points support method is examined. Based on the obtained results, the five points support method is newly proposed in order to suppress the vibration transmission. In the proposed method, the compressor is supported by low stiffness support elements at the four corners and a high stiffness support element at the center. Analytical and experimental results confirm that the natural frequencies of the compressor can be reduced by means of the five points support method as compared with the four points support method. From the results of driving experiment, it was also proven that the resonance of the compressor is hardly occurred in the low rotation frequency region, and the vibration transmission from the compressor to the plate can be reduced.

Keywords

• vibration
• reciprocating compressor
• refrigerator
• natural frequency
• support structure