With the increasing competition in the automotive industry, customer experience & satisfaction is at the top of every organization's goals. The customers have evolved & NVH refinement has become the parameter for their decision making in buying a car.
The major source of rumble noise in a vehicle is the induced vibrations due to combustion forces in an IC engine. These vibrations are then transferred to the vehicle body through engine mounts. Hence engine mounts play a key role in defining the NVH & the ride performance of any vehicle. However, it is infeasible to validate every mount design through the physical test as it will be both costly & time-consuming. But multiple design iterations can be verified by the CAE approach quite effectively.
This paper focuses on the novel CAE approach to evaluate the mount vibrations due to engine dynamics. The process involves preparing a FEA model of the complete Powertrain system. The whole system is analyzed sequentially for Mount Mobility FRF (Frequency Response Function) analysis, then followed by Multi-Body Dynamics analysis using the actual engine excitation loads. The resultant mount velocities when compared against body side mounts & benchmark values define the NVH performance of the mounting system for limiting the rumbling noise transfer inside the passenger cabin.