Vibration Control of a Passenger Vehicle Utilizing a Semi-Active ER Engine Mount

Abstract

This paper presents vibration control of a passenger vehicle using an electronically controllable electro-rheological (ER) engine mount. A mixed-mode ER engine mount operating under the flow and shear modes is devised and manufactured. After establishing the dynamic model of the proposed ER engine mount, both field-dependent displacement transmissibility and dynamic stiffness of the ER engine mount are empirically evaluated. The ER engine mount is then incorporated with a full-vehicle model in order to investigate vibration control performance at the driver's seat position. The governing equation of motion of the full-vehicle model is formulated by considering engine excitation force, followed by designing a skyhook controller to attenuate unwanted vibration. The controller is implemented through a hardware-in-the-loop simulation (HILS), and control responses such as acceleration level at idle speed are evaluated in the frequency and time domains.