MEC 445: Industrial applications of Finite Element Analysis Assignment

Department of Mechanical Engineering - The University of Sheffield, England, UK

Project Title: Engine Mount

Aim - The aim of these projects is to produce an advanced finite element model of an industry-relevant application, to compare results with experimental measurements and to discuss how this model could be used to solve an industrial problem.

Project details can be found in the attached documents.

Assessment - Each student will produce an individual report, of the standard of a conventional laboratory report. The report, apart from having the conventional title page, summary, introduction, discussion, conclusions, references etc., should include:

i. Description of the analysis approach adopted;

ii. Explanation of the model construction;

iii. Details of solution methods and related parameters used;

iv. Comparison between model and experimental results;

v. Interpretation of results and comments on any discrepancies;

vi. Discussion about how to make use of the model to solve the industrial problem.

Format: The report is limited to 3000 words (word count must be included), a maximum of 20 pages including cover page, summary page, content page and references (any additional pages will be considered as Appendices and will not be read), with 25 mm margins and Times New Roman font size of 12.

Problem Description -

A static compression test has been carried out on an engine mount to study the variation of deformation of the internal rubber spring with mileage. The internal structure of the mount is shown in Figure 1. 3D Digital image correlation was used to measure strain distributions in the rubber by cutting the engine mount in half and by subsequently covering the surface of interest with a speckle pattern to help correlate the images recorded by two optical cameras. An image of the test rig is shown in Figure 2. Maximum principal strain distribution results for both a new engine mount and an engine mount after about 130000 km in service are shown in Figure 3 following 4 mm applied compression. Additional data about the geometry of the mount, material properties of the elastomer, load-displacement curves, etc... can be found in the two following publications available on Blackboard:

Tang N, Soltani P, Pinna C, Wagg D & Whear R (2018) Ageing of a polymeric engine mount investigated using digital image correlation. Polymer Testing, 71, 137-144.

Soltani P, Pinna C, Wagg D & Whear R (2018) Ageing Simulation of a Hydraulic Engine Mount: a Data Informed Finite Element Approach. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part D: Journal of Automobile Engineering.

You are asked to produce a finite element model of this test, compare strain distributions with experimental results, assess reasons for any discrepancies and discuss how this model could be used by the automotive industry.

Note - All figures are attached.

References -

1. Product Performance - Ageing of a polymeric engine mount investigated using digital image correlation by Ning Tanga, Payam Soltanib, Christophe Pinnaa, David Wagga, Roly Whearc.

2. Original Article - Ageing simulation of a hydraulic engine mount: A data-informed finite element approach by Payam Soltani, Christophe Pinna, David J Wagg and Roly Whear.

Attachment:- Industrial applications of Finite Element Analysis Assignment Files.rar