Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Engine Foundation for Vibration Reduction

The purpose of this study is to minimise frequency response of engine foundation using topology optimisation. The study involves vibration response estimation of an existing marine engine foundation, validation of estimations with measurements and estimation of reduction in vibration response after optimisation. Initially, solid model of baseline model is generated using dimensions of the existing foundation measured by a laser line probe coordinate measuring machine. Harmonic analysis is used to find the vibration response of the foundation. These results are experimentally validated by the measurements on the foundation using the vibration testing. Frequency response topology optimisation is then carried out on the baseline model to reduce vibration response with specified constraints and objective function. Subsequently, harmonic analysis is performed on the topology optimised design to verify the reduction in vibration response. From these results, it is observed that considerable frequency response is reduced with modified design compared to baseline model.