Testing and Modeling of Mounts for Improved Safety Design and Crashworthiness Analysis

This paper describes (1) the findings from the implementation of a component test methodology for body, engine and transmission mounts [1, 2 and 3], and (2) the associated CAE model development and mount design robustness enhancement. A series of component tests on light truck body, engine and transmission mounts have been conducted to not only obtain their characteristics as inputs for crashworthiness analysis, but also drive mount design direction for frontal impacts.

In this paper, the lessons learned from implementation of the mount testing and modeling methodology [1, 2 and 3] are reported in three areas: firstly, improvement of test setup and data collection over an existing approach to achieve test robustness, time efficiency and cost effectiveness; secondly, the confirmation of the thread effect on body mount performance for improved body mount design; and thirdly, the confirmation of a dual spring modeling methodology for better simulating engine and transmission mounts based on test finding and existing practice. Component test results and the new mount modeling methodology are incorporated into full vehicle CAE models for crashworthiness analysis of frontal crashes. Simulated results with implementation of the mount modeling methodology, when compared with full vehicle test data, indicate that the quality and the prediction accuracy of the full vehicle CAE models have been improved. Both the test and CAE methodology are implemented into vehicle program for support in crash safety analysis.