Design of Engine Mount Using Finite Element Method and Optimization Technique

In order to obtain an automatically designed shape of engine mount, an optimum shape design process of engine mounting rubber is introduced. After the primary stiffness values of an engine mount system are determined, the secondary stiffness values and the shapes are designed. By using nonlinear spring analysis, the design of the secondary stiffness and the gap size of engine mount can be carried out. In this work, the finite element program including the optimization code is developed and used. The optimum shape design process of engine mounting rubber using a parametric approach is suggested. The optimization code is used with the commercial nonlinear finite element program to determine the shape to satisfy the stiffness requirements of engine mounts. An engine mount system used in a passenger car is chosen for an application model. Three engine mounts are designed by the procedure mentioned above. The shape from the result of the parameter optimization is determined as a final model with some modifications. The stiffness values of the optimized models along the principal direction are compared with the design specifications of the current model. Finally, an overview of the current status and future works for the engine mount design are discussed.