Optimization of the Rigid Body Mechanism in a Wobble Plate Compressor

A complex mechanical system is optimized with respect to its performance. The mechanism is a compressor, which is modeled as a multibody system. The optimization is first performed on a simplified 2D model, where it is possible to find analytical sensitivities, and the results indicate that the mechanism can be optimized. Optimization is finally performed with numerical sensitivities, from a full 3D mechanism simulation with 20 bodies, and the results show that the desired change of performance is obtained. For the optimization procedure the SLP method (sequential linear programming) is used with good results, and although the paper deals with optimization of a specific mechanism, the procedure can be modified to treat also other mechanical systems.