Structural Design of an LMU Using Approximate Model and Satisficing Trade-Off Method

An LMU is a component that supports the topside of the offshore plant, which is composed of elastomeric bearing and steel plate. One of the essential design requirements of the LMU is related to the stiffness. The structural design requirement is that the reaction force of the LMU should be designed as close to linear as possible. For satisfying this design requirement, this study applied the hybrid metamodel-based optimization technique and the satisficing trade-off method. In this optimization process, the design variables are defined as the parameters included in the LMU, and the multiobjective function is made. Also, the suggested optimum is compared with those by the weighting method.