Identification of optimal control parameters for a pneumatic active engine mount system

Pneumatic Active Engine Mount (PAEM) with trans-forward control system has been developed to reduce the transmission of the idle-shake vibration induced by engine effectively and economically. A solenoid valve installed between PAEM and vacuum tank is on-off switched by the pulse width modulate (PWM) control signal to decrease the dynamic stiffness of the engine mount. This paper presents the methodology to identify the optimal values of control parameters of a PAEM, i.e. turn-on timing and duty ratio of PWM signal for 6 different idle driving conditions. A scanning algorithm was first applied to the vehicle test to obtain the approximate optimal control parameters minimizing the vibration at front seat rail and at steering wheel. Then the PAEM system identification was fulfilled to find accurate optimal control parameters by using multi-layer neural networks of Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm with vehicle test data.