Control performance of ER engine mount subjected to temperature variations

A key function of engine mount of vehicle systems is to support engine mass and isolate noise and vibration from engine disturbance forces. One of attractive candidates to achieve this goal is to utilize a semi-active ER engine mount. By applying this, we can effectively control damping force and hence the noise and vibration by just controlling the intensity of electric field. However, control performance of the engine mount may be very sensitive to temperature variation during engine operation. In this work, we investigate dynamic and control performances of ER engine mount with respect to the temperature variation. In order to undertake this, a flow-mode type of ER engine mount is designed and manufactured. Displacement transmissibility is experimentally evaluated for I degree of freedom. The ER engine mount is then incorporated with full-vehicle model in order to investigate vibration control performance. After formulating the governing equation of motion, a semi-active controller is designed. The controller is implemented through a hardware-in-the-loop simulation (HILS), and control responses such as acceleration level at various engine speeds are evaluated in the frequency and time domains.