Methods for the Reduction of Noise and Vibration in Vehicles Using an Appropriate Engine Mount System

The ride and noise behavior of a vehicle can be significantly affected by vibrations transferred from the engine to the chassis through the engine mounts. For this reason, special attention has to be paid to the design of the engine mount system right from the beginning of a new car development program. Only optimizing the engine mount while considering it as an isolated component limits the potential gains in regard to the overall vehicle performance. Therefore, right from the conception phase, the mounting system has to be considered as an integral part of the vehicle vibrational system. With the suggested approach, based on analytical and experimental results, the optimization of the mount system can lead to a good overall vehicle performance at low cost.

The focus of this paper is placed on the role of engine mounts in the optimization process of the vehicle vibrational and acoustic behavior. Conception and design strategies based upon calculation and experimental methods are discussed. A multiple-body truck simulation is presented, and the role of the transfer path analysis in the optimization of an engine mount system is illustrated.