Design of a solenoid valve based active engine mount

Abstract

This paper describes the design of a versatile and fully controllable active engine mount. The proposed active mount is capable of addressing vibration isolation requirements at various driving conditions. This design addresses a better ride quality that has always been demanded by the automotive industry, as well as satisfying sophisticated vibration isolation requirements for the unconventional engines, i.e. variable displacement, and hybrids. The proposed engine mount replaces the decoupler of the original design with a solenoid actuator. The mathematical model of the active mount is obtained. The dynamic characteristics of the mount are shown to be highly controllable over the operating frequency range of excitation in engines. The effectiveness of the developed active engine mount for various working conditions of engine is also evaluated. Several driving conditions are investigated and proper control strategies are utilized to demonstrate the mount's capability to fulfill the isolation requirements for each condition. The promising results, in addition to compactness, low cost, fail safety, and durability are the main advantages of the proposed active engine mount, which makes it viable for automotive applications.