Power plant mounting is one of the fundamental design characteristics of a motor vehicle. A vehicle's power-plant, in particular the way it is mounted to the vehicle body plays a major role in determining the vehicle's vibration characteristics. A well designed mounting system isolates the engine inputs. In this regard engine mounts play a key role; as the vibration transfer path is from engine to vehicle body through engine mounts and chassis.
A finite element vibration analysis of the engine mount is performed for the multi-utility passenger vehicle fitted with direct injection diesel engine to simulate and study their behaviour under engine vibration in vehicle. Apart from this their effectiveness to isolate the engine vibration to the chassis from normal idle speed to high idle is also determined.
The analysis is carried out in two parts, viz.:
Part A of the analysis is done to compare the static deflection of the engine mount with measured values in the lab with engine and gearbox load supported by the mount in vehicle. The non-linear hyperelastic analysis is carried out to take into account the non-linear effects of the elastomer.
The results of both the FE analysis are in close agreement with the actual test results.
Part B of the analysis revealed the behaviour of the mount for the whole operating range of the engine in vehicle. The vibration transmissibility and model response of the mount is determined. The results show that engine mount is effective in isolating the engine vibration and operates in the isolation region of the transmissibility curve.