Turn Over
Department of Mechanical Engineering
MEC 445: Industrial applications of Finite Element
Analysis
Project 2 Outline
Title: Engine Mount
Problem Description
A static compression test has been carried out on an engine mount to study the
variation of deformation of the internal rubber spring with mileage. The internal
structure of the mount is shown in Figure 1. 3D Digital image correlation was used
to measure strain distributions in the rubber by cutting the engine mount in half
and by subsequently covering the surface of interest with a speckle pattern to help
correlate the images recorded by two optical cameras. An image of the test rig is
shown in Figure 2. Maximum principal strain distribution results for both a new
engine mount and an engine mount after about 130000 km in service are shown in
Figure 3 following 4 mm applied compression. Additional data about the
geometry of the mount, material properties of the elastomer, load-displacement
curves, etc… can be found in the two following publications available on
Blackboard:
Tang N, Soltani P, Pinna C, Wagg D & Whear R (2018) Ageing of a polymeric engine mount
investigated using digital image correlation. Polymer Testing, 71, 137-144
Soltani P, Pinna C, Wagg D & Whear R (2018) Ageing Simulation of a Hydraulic Engine Mount: a
Data Informed Finite Element Approach. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers,
Part D: Journal of Automobile Engineering.
You are asked to produce a finite element model of this test, compare strain
distributions with experimental results, assess reasons for any discrepancies and
discuss how this model could be used by the automotive industry.
Fig. 1 – The Internal Structure of the Elastomeric Engine Mount
Fig. 2 – Static compression test using 3D DIC
Fig. 3 – Maximum Principal Strain Distribution for a New and Service Aged
Engine Mount using DIC