A rubber mount model. Application to automotive equipment suspension

Overview & Synopsis

In order to predict the nonlinear dynamic response of automotive equipment supported by rubber mounts, it is proposed to extend the generalized Dahl model for taking into account the visco-elastic behaviour of elastomer mount and to combine it, in a next step, with the reduced dynamic equations of the equipment supposed to exhibit a linear behaviour. To this end, the parameters of the restoring force model of the mounts are identified through a series of tests accounting several types of solicitation. The procedure applied to the measured force-deflection loops makes automatic the data processing and thus the parameter identification of the model. The application concerns the suspension of an automotive engine cooling module.