Charge Air Cooler Decoupling Using Short Rubber Hoses

Due to environmental concerns, car manufacturers tend to generalize turbocharged engines. To increase the engine efficiency a charge air cooler is often added. When the charge air cooler is attached to the car body, static displacement and dynamic vibrations of the engine have to be isolated by using rubber hoses. For diesel engines, especially, higher static and dynamic pressures are observed inside these hoses which tend to decrease their decoupling efficiency. When long hoses are used, flexible loops easily provide efficient vibration reduction. When packaging constrains only allow short hoses, a large increase of the vibrations of the cooler is generally observed.

This paper will focus on the optimization of the cooler decoupling in the case of short rubber hoses. First, the static and dynamic loads applied to the charge air cooler through the hoses are investigated. Second, an alternate concept of the cooler decoupling system is proposed, such that short hoses and high air pressure do not generate large pre-loads on the elastic mounts of the cooler.