Periodic Mounts to Isolate the Vibrations of Automotive Vehicle Engine

In this paper, a new class of periodic mounts for isolating the vibration transmission from vehicle engine to the car body and seats is presented. Periodic mounts exhibit unique dynamic characteristics that make them act as mechanical filters for wave propagation. As a result, waves can propagate along the periodic mounts only within specific frequency bands called the “Pass Bands” and wave propagation is completely blocked within other frequency bands called the “Stop Bands”. The experimental arrangements, including the design of mounting systems with plain and periodic mounts are studied first. The dynamic characteristics of such systems will be obtained experimentally in both cases. Tests are then carried out to study the performance characteristics of periodic mounts with geometrical and/or material periodicity. The effectiveness of the periodicity on the vibration levels of mounting systems has been demonstrated theoretically and experimentally. Finally, the experimental results are compared with the theoretical predictions. Good agreement is obtained between theory and experiments.