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Hydraulically damped rubber engine mounts (HDM) are an effective means of providing sufficient isolation from engine vibration while also providing significant damping to control the rigid body motions of the engine during normal driving conditions. This results in a system which exhibits a high degree of non-linearity in terms of both frequency and amplitude. The numerical simulation of vibration isolation characteristics of HDM is difficult due to the fluid-structure interaction between the main supporting rubber and fluid in chambers, the nonlinear material properties, the large deformation of rubber parts, structure contact problems among the inner parts, and the turbulent flow in the inertia track. In this paper an integrated numerical simulation analysis based on structural FEM and a lumped-parameter model of HDM is carried out.

A Finite Element Analysis (FEA) of the static elastic characteristics of rubber isolators in automotive dynamic systems, such as suspension bushings and rubber springs of hydraulic engine mount, is carried out. The basic theory for the finite element analysis of rubber components is reviewed, and the method for conducting experiments for hyperelastic material constitutive model is studied. The specific requirement of the element for rubber FEA is also stated. As a case for studies, the stiffnesses of a complex rubber bushing subjected to radial, axial, torsional or tilting loading are calculated by Finite Element Method (FEM) and some closed form formulae based on regular bushing configuration. The results are compared with the experimental data. It is found that the FEM simulation results agree well with the experimental data.