In situ body mount optimization: theory and experiment

In this paper, an in situ method has been used to find the optimum set of body mounts for a given vehicle. The strength of this method is that it does not require the vehicle to be disassembled. Standard noise, vibration and harshness testing procedures are used to obtain frequency response function (FRF) models of the vehicle's subsystems. This is followed by FRF-based substructuring synthesis approach to obtain the overall vehicle model. The model is incorporated into an optimization algorithm to predict the optimum set of body mounts for a desired objective function. The in situ method is presented and applied to an experimental case study of a pick up truck. The experimental results confirmed the validity and effectiveness of this approach in finding the optimum body mount set, resulting in significant reduction in the vibration level of the vehicle.