Transfer Function and Simplified Stiffness Model for Damper Design and Validation

The process of vehicular components validation requires field performance verification. During the development process of a component, testing and data collection often require longer than the vehicle test period available for a given component. In order for the vehicle development process to encompass all components tests and software calibration both, cost and time increase. Thus, it has become progressively necessary to use simulation tools and bench analysis during product development processes. Mathematical tools for simulation have been gaining popularity exponentially due to the fact that they enable users to simulate many designs in order to find the optimal solution and reduce development time, prototypes and field tests costs. The present work uses the Signal Analysis Transfer Function Tool, combined with a bar model proposed for calculating stiffness, in the development of a rubber damper and support, as a solution to attenuate the vibration on the electronic module mounted on an automated transmission. The function of the rubber damper is to attenuate the vibration effect of sprung mass and the interactions with vehicle excitation. An important concern of the development project is the useful life of the damper and other components, such as the electronic module and the brackets. The rubber damper model is complex, due to non-linearity behavior. Another difficulty was that the manufacturer of rubber damper material, which detains the know-how of the process, treats it as confidential information, so they do not provide the material properties which does not allow the construction of a suitable model for simulation. The evaluation consisted of vibration analyses and tests regarding the required life of each of the components. The feasibility of the proposal was verified through shaker durability tests and in-vehicle assessment.