Shape Design for Viscoelastic Vibration Isolators to Minimize Rotational Stiffness

Design of shape fur visco-elastic vibration isolation elements, which are very cost-effective and so popular in many applications is fi?equently based on experiences, intuitions, or trial and errors. Such traditions in shape design make it difficult for drastic changes or new concepts to come out. In this paper, both topological method and shape optimization method are combined together to find out a most desirable isolator shape efficiently by using two commercial engineering programs, ABAQUS and MATLAB. The procedure is divided into two steps. At the first step, a topology optimization method is employed to find an initial shape, where density of either 0 or 1 for finite elements is used fur physical realizability. At the second step, based on the initial shape, finer tuning of the shape is done by boundary movement method. An illustration of the procedure is presented fur a mount of an air-conditioner compressor system and the effectiveness is discussed.