Vibration and Noise Identification of a Commercial Refrigerator

Abstract

The vibration transmission to the cooled goods within a refrigerator is a usually neglected field of interest. Previous studies however show that biochemical properties can be affected by continuous exposure to vibration. Optimal storage conditions necessitate protection against UV light and vibration to prevent the cooled good's quality being degraded by outside factors. Using operational transfer path analysis, we investigate different excitation sources that affect a commercial refrigerator and quantify the spectral input-distributions for all potential sources. Environmental influences, operational conditions and human interactions with both the refrigerator directly as well as indirectly via the environment were considered. Based on previous works, we developed a robust algorithm for the estimation of the varying transmission paths within the refrigerator and the close environment. Utilizing the measured and calculated data we investigate optimizations in design. We identified and charactarized the impact of different vibration-sources and used deflection shapes of the system and the results from the TPA to identify areas of interest. Finally, we investigate measures to shift resonance frequencies into spectral ranges with less excitation and to introduce additional damping.

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