Axial vibration reduction of a wall-mounted drum-type washing machine

Abstract

We proposed a mounting device for a wall-mounted drum-type washing machine in order to reduce the axial vibration transmitted to the wall by utilizing finite element analysis, and the performance of the proposed design was verified by a vibration experiment. The finite element model (FEM) was divided into the rotor and stator parts, and the axial vibration of the wall-mounted drum-type washing machine was calculated by applying the reaction force generated by the rotor parts to the stator parts. The rotating unbalanced mass, or the laundry, was applied to the FEM of the rotor parts, and the reaction force was calculated at the bearings in the rotary coordinate system. The reaction force of the rotor parts, which was converted from the rotary coordinate system to the global coordinate system, was applied to the FEM of the stator parts. The vibration of a motor was applied by measuring the vibration of the bolts connecting the motor and the tub. A vibration experiment was performed to verify the FEM with an accelerometer, tachometer, and signal analyzer. The proposed design was developed using viscoelastic rubber ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) through finite element analysis, and its performance was verified by the vibration experiment. From the results of the performance evaluation, it was confirmed that the vibration reduction ratio of the maximum amplitude, rotor, and motor vibration were 29.0 %, 2.9 %, and 43.1 %, respectively.