Optimization of IC engine mounts for BAJA All-Terrain Vehicle

Abstract

Vibration isolation has been a key area of focus in almost every mechanical component. The impact of vibrations on efficiency, longevity and performance of a machine component is tremendous. An automotive engine poses a very challenging vibration problem due to the multi-axial forces of varying amplitude. With the increasing supremacy of computational methods, the current work focuses on solving the vibration isolation in the time domain, using various computational techniques. The study focuses on the decoupling of the vibration modes, and work has been done to optimize the design in such a way that forces in all directions are transformed into a force along a single direction (Torque Roll Axis) parallel to the applied force about the crankshaft. The decoupling of the vibration ensures that the engine is robust to changes in the frequency of applied torque. The work also focuses on the implementation of multiple optimization methods on multi-objective functions using conventional and evolutionary algorithms and comparing their results. The engine used in a student Off-road Racing event (BAJA SAE) has been considered throughout this work.