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2019-26-0116 Published 09 Jan 2019

Engine Mounting System Design Approach

for Electric Vehicles
Sandip Hazra Tata Motors, Ltd.

Citation: Hazra, S., “Engine Mounting System Design Approach for Electric Vehicles,” SAE Technical Paper 2019-26-0116, 2019,
doi:10.4271/2019-26-0116.

Abstract
drive, then the mounting system is a three or four point system

A
s we are moving towards complete electrification from with bush type mounts in most cases.
combustion engine to electric motor, the system As E-motors provide vibration & noise excitation particu-
design approach also changes due to application. For larly in high frequency range (up to several kHz), a low dynamic
a range of 100-150  kg EV powertrain weight, number of hardening is beneficial. The methodology of decoupling and
mounts as well as mount locations, orientations and stiffnesses separating the powertrain rigid body modes is the same.
plays a significant role during system design. The electric However, the targets for modal alignment should be adjusted,
powertrains are usually lighter and their mounts are usually as idle isolation is not required anymore, because there is no
stiffer than the mounts for typical combustion engines, the idle excitation with electric powertrains. That is also the reason
static displacements at dead load are usually lower. However, why a mounting system for an electric powertrain can be much
currently it seems like there is no common direction of all stiffer than the mounting system for a combustion engine,
OEM’s regarding the question of how stiff an e-motor which has positive effects for engine shake and helps to control
mounting system should actually be. Due to the high torque the high torque and quick torque changes of e-motors.
of the EV’s one could even think about switching to a four In addition, as there is no clutch anymore, the influence
point mounting instead of a pendulum mounting. That is of the drive shafts on the powertrain eigen modes should
actually something we observe in some benchmarks - that be considered if possible. In the paper various configuration
(modified) pendulum systems are used mainly for e-motors, with generic system design approaches for EV engine
which share a common vehicle platform with combustions mounting system have been presented along with a case study
engines, but if a vehicle is developed exclusively for electric with three point mounting system.

Keywords
EV, Engine mount

Introduction
Second approach is develop on a fresh platform where all

C
urrently most of the Indian OEM are using conven- motor mounts can be designed optimally based on requirements.
tional type engine which is either Petrol or Diesel or Therefore, an investigation has to be done to identify the
CNG and a few high end vehicles are using Hybrids. design parameters of EV engine mounting system
However, there is a recent trend on usage of electric vehicle as The vibration isolation effectiveness of powertrain mount
it is cost effective to the common user. There are two configurations is examined for electric vehicle application by
approaches which OEMs are following. First approach is to considering the effect introduced by internal mount reso-
install a new electric motor in the engine compartment of nances. Unlike internal combustion engines where mounts
existing internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle, for this are typically designed only for static support and low frequency
some components are required to be removed, whilst some 6-16 Hz dynamics, electric motors have higher excitation
functional parts are required to be retained. The demerits of frequencies in a range of KHz where mount resonances often
motor mounts are limitation in design due to its original occur. The problem is first analytically formulated by consid-
position (conventional engine). ering a simple 3-dimensional powertrain system, and the

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2 ENGINE MOUNTING SYSTEM DESIGN APPROACH FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES

 FIGURE 1   a[4] & 1.b - EV unit fitted on conventional  FIGURE 3   driveshaft torque and mount elastic centre
mounting system

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 FIGURE 2   a [4] & 2.b [4] - Mounting system for EV unit

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It is then the availability of good vehicle structure that
determines the optimum location.
The frequency range for practical concern is from 1 to
2000 Hz
Another significant factor is the torque characteristics of
electric machines with max torque when stationary and rapid
transients with full torque typically applied over 0.2 seconds.
For front motors, the main structural components that
are easy to attach to are the HV tray for the upper mounts and
the frame cross member for the lowers.
vibration isolation effectiveness significantly deteriorates at Ideally the lowers would be tie bars but compatibility to
the mount resonance(s). be  ensured with steering rack position and anti-roll
bar element.
If the lower mount is the weakest acoustic path then the
Problem Definition motor is hung from the uppers (stable) with the lower bushes
for torque reaction only.
Fore/aft mounting has been investigated but has been
The scope of this paper is limited to a various types of electric
found to be difficult due to the last of supporting structure
powertrain supported by multiple elastic mounts and their
and the impact on crash performance due to locking out much
design approach. It is shown in Figures 1a & b, 2a & b - a
of the crush zone.
schematic of a realistic drive unit (containing electric motor,
An alternative approach would be to attach the upper
power invertor, and gearbox).
mounts to the shock towers if the HV tray isn’t available.
This unit is a representative subsystem of the vehicle
4 mounts (Figure 4) are driven to limit loads into the
powertrain and driveline for motion analysis (as opposed to
casing and a future consideration will be the load capacity of
torsional system analysis). The scope of this paper to select
these joints as torque increases.
the type of engine mount for effective vibration isolation over
Functions of all vertical mounts (bush type):
the mid frequency range (say from 100 to 1000 Hz). Specific
objectives include the following: 1.Various types of EV i. Isolate the vehicle occupants from the internally
mounting system, 2. Comparison of 3-point and 4-point generated vibration
mounting schemes
 FIGURE 4   Four point system (bush type)

Types of EV Mountings
and Design Approaches
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Electric machine mounting is dominated by the need to react

toque and isolation of gear meshing and motor order forcing.
There are no idle nor torque roll axis considerations like
conventional engine.
The mounts are place to act as a couple with their elastic
centre on the centre of gravity (Figure 3) of the motor unit to
provide good control under high toque transients.
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 ENGINE MOUNTING SYSTEM DESIGN APPROACH FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES 3

ii. Locate the mounted unit at the required location in  FIGURE 5.3   Progression curve in Z direction
the vehicle
iii. Mount/locate the unit and react all loads (gravity,
torque and dynamic).
iv. Restrain its movements to within the required
package envelope.

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v. Control the low frequency movements of the mounted
components due to internal forcing, such as startup/
shut down, road inputs and torque inputs
vi. Provide the required crash performance
vii. Robust enough for all markets application

These types of mounts are generally very stiff to take care

of reaction due to fluctuating torque generated by motor. The
generic progression curves described in Figures 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3
As EV has usually only have one forward and one
rearward gear, there are basically only three characteristic
under torque can be avoided (high torque = high motor excita-
operating points left: no torque, forward WOT and rearward
tions), because displacements are kept very low. But of course
WOT torque. (Often the max. recuperation torque is consid-
the decision for one of those approaches is also strongly
ered instead of rearward WOT torque.) The exact shape of the
depending on the installation conditions, costs, etc.. For
mount force/def lection curves depends on which basic
example “normal” engine mounts can certainly not be fitted
approach we want to follow. Currently, some OEMs use rather
in the available packaging space at a rear axle. At the front
soft progressive (hydro-) mounts (similar to ICE), where the
axle, we usually have the choice.
WOT operating points are already in (a preferably not too
As the mounts are tends to stiffer and the powertrain
steep part of) progression. Other OEMs use stiff (conven-
mass is tending towards lower for electric powertrains, the
tional) mounts - typically bush type. This way snubber contact
required envelope tends to becomes smaller. One exception
might be the rotation angle about vehicle Y, because electric
powertrains usually provide high torques, which can also vary
 FIGURE 5.1   Progression curve in X direction
very quickly. So, sufficient space/mount size is still necessary
to achieve reasonable mount curves for good isolation and
tip-in/let-off behaviour. But of course this strongly depends
on many parameters, like the type of mounting architecture
(e.g. pendulum, 3-point, 4-point), the lever arms of the mounts
regarding motor torque, and of course the basic approach for
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the mounting system as described above.

The methodology of decoupling and separating the
powertrain rigid body modes is the same. But the targets for
modal alignment should be  adjusted. Some can even
be  discarded. For example idle isolation is not required
anymore, because there is no idle excitation with electric
powertrains. That is also the reason why a mounting system
for an electric powertrain can be  much stiffer than the
mounting system for a combustion engine, which has positive
effects for engine shake and also helps to control the high
 FIGURE 5.2   Progression curve in Y direction torque and quick torque changes of e-motors. We usually try
to set the electric powertrain rigid body modes in the range
of roughly 10-50 Hz. Our recommendation is, to make the
basic stiffness of the mounts stiff enough, so that the bounce
frequency is shifted sufficiently far above the wheel modes to
achieve good engine shake performance even without hydro-
mounts, and secondly the operating points of the mounts at
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WOT are still within linear range.

In case there is a second level of elastic suspension (double
isolation), e.g. if the electric powertrain is mounted on a sub
frame, which itself is suspended on rubber mounts, the simu-
lation model should ideally be extended by the additional DOF
of the sub frame, though. Also, as there is no clutch anymore,
the influence of the drive shafts on the powertrain eigen modes
should be considered if possible.
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4 ENGINE MOUNTING SYSTEM DESIGN APPROACH FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES

TABLE 1  Various Types of EV mounting system  FIGURE 7   Conceptual 1D model of a mounting system

© SAE International
Architecture (Front/Transverse & Rear/Transverse)

and © SAE India

Motor Type Fr Rr Fr Rr Fr Rr
Concentric X Y X Y Q Y
Offset X P X P Q P
X = 3 points (2 upper and 1 TRR)
Y = 4 point system on sub frame
P = 3 point system on sub frame

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Q = 2 upper & 2 TRR

 FIGURE 6   Schematic layouts of different kind of system

x3 - k13 ( x3 - x1 ) + k23 ( x3 - x2 ) = Fsin ( wt )

m3  (3)

ém1 0 0 ù é x1 ù
ê úê ú
ê 0 m2 0 ú ê x2 ú +
ê0 0 m3 úû êë x3 úû
ë
(4)
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ék1 + k13 0 - k13 ù ì x1 ü ì 0 ü

ê úï ï ï ï
ê 0 k2 + k23 - k23 ú í x2 ý = í 0 ý
ê -k13
ë - k23 k13 + k23 úû ïî x3 ïþ ïîF sinw
wt ïþ

Let’s consider
x1 = x1 sin ( wt ) (5)
Case Study: Problem
x2 = x2 sin ( wt )
Formulation (6)

Engine mounting adopted system: The scope of this paper to x3 = x3 sin ( wt ) (7)
study the adopted 3 point mounting system for EV and its
NVH result é -m1 w 2 0 0 ù ì x1 ü ì x1 ü ì 0 ü
ê 2 úï ï ï ï ï ï
ê 0 - m2 w 0 ú í x2 ý + éëk ùûí x2 ý = í 0 ý
ê 0 0 - m w2 ú ïx ï ï x ï ïF ï
ûî 3 þ î 3þ î þ
Analytical Model ë 3

ì x1 ü ì 0 ü
The drive unit is initially analyzed as a simplified 1D model as ( z ( w ) ) ïíx2 ïý = ïí 0 ïý (8)
shown in Figure 7. The drivetrain components are lumped into ï x ï ïF ï
î 3þ î þ
a single mass with different mounting systems represented in
a simplified spring mass system. The motion is considered in
only one direction. The system includes forced vibration with ì x1 ü ì0 ü
ï ï ï ï
í x 2 ý = (z ( w )
-1
force applied on the drive unit. The response of the system is í 0 ý (9)
analyzed in the frequency domain. Damping of the mounts is ïx ï ïF ï
î 3þ î þ
not considered in this analysis for simplification.
The governing equations at excitation frequency are
æ0ö
written in matrix form as ç ÷
ad j (z (w )ç 0 ÷
m1 x1 - k13 ( x3 - x1 ) + k1 x1 = 0 (1) ì x1 ü çF ÷
ï ï è ø
íx 2 ý = (10)
ïx ï ê
ë z ( w ) ú
û
m2 x2 - k23 ( x3 - x2 ) + k2 x2 = 0 (2) î 3þ
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 ENGINE MOUNTING SYSTEM DESIGN APPROACH FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES 5

TABLE 2  No. of mounts and its configuration  FIGURE 8.2   Comparison of different mounting systems
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Model No. of mounts Configuration

and © SAE India

A 2 0,1
B 3 0,1
C 4 0,1
Configuration 0 - Identical mount
Configuration 1 - Non identical mounts set

TABLE 3  Mass and stiffness values

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Parameter Value Unit
M(Mount) 1.5 Kg
M(drive unit) 56.8 Kg
K(identical) 400 N/mm
K(non-identical) 800 N/mm
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For a given excitation frequency, the magnitude of the

force transmitted to the rigid base determines the effectiveness
of the mounting system. analysis is carried out with 6 dof model for the selected
Three different mounting systems with two configura- mounting system.
tions each are analyzed to see the vibration isolation effective-
ness. A simple analytical model is created in MATLAB to
calculate the response of the following iterations in Table 2:
Parameters for the above iterations are selected to repli-
cate the realistic system response from the ongoing project.
Optimization Goal
The system shows two peaks in the response as expected. The The main design criteria for EV mounting system are
first peak is much higher than the applied force which repre-
sents the resonance of the powertrain. The second peak is 1. EA TRA alignment not required.
observed with internal mount resonance with transmitted 2. Pitch mode we set 20 - 30 Hz (keeps it out of the way
force lesser than the applied force. for driveline shuffle)
Three different mounting systems are compared with two 3. Bounce mode 2 Hz separated from wheel hop (keeps
different configurations. Figure 8.1 shows that the identical it out of the way for ride)
mounting system gives better performance with only one
peak. Figure 8.2 shows that two point mounting system The 3 point system can be described as below:
performs better with the given configuration.
With the initial analysis two point mounting system with
identical mounts is finalized for further analysis. Detailed  FIGURE 9   PTMS -Mathematical Model

 FIGURE 8.1   Comparison on identical and non-identical

mounting systems
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© SAE International and © SAE India

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6 ENGINE MOUNTING SYSTEM DESIGN APPROACH FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES

EXTERNAL CALCULATIONS (MathCAD, Excel)  FIGURE 10   6 DOF Modal analysis

The governing equations are as below:
x = Ax + Bu (11)

y = Cx + Du (12)

y = éC ( iw I - A ) B + D ù u
-1
(13)
ë û

y = M u (14)

æ ( c + iwd ) y 3 ö
ç ÷
y = M ç u1 ÷ (15)
ç u2 ÷
è ø

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éæ 0 ö æ 0 0 c + iwd ö ù
êç ÷ ç ÷ ú
y = M êç u1 ÷ + ç 0 0 0 ÷ y ú (16)
êçè u2 ÷ø èç 0 0 0 ÷ø úû
ë

æ0ö æ0 0 c + iwd ö
ç ÷ ç ÷
y = M ç u1 ÷ + M ç 0 0 0 ÷ y (17)
çu ÷ ç 0 ÷ø
è 2ø è0 0
-1 Mass: 60 Kg,
é æ0 0 c + iwd ö ù æ0ö Powertrain CG: [-x, y, z]
ê ç ÷ú ç ÷
y = ê E - M ç 0 0 0 ÷ ú M ç u1 ÷ (18) Powertrain inertia matrix:
ê ç0 0 0 ÷ø úû çu ÷
ë è è 2ø é Ixx Ixy Ixz ù
ê Iyx Iyy Iyz úú
ê
êë Izx Izy Izz úû
Design Analysis Modal analysis using 6DOF Model of Engine in Vehicle
System – Powertrain rigid body modes at no toque
TABLE 4  Engine Mount static stiffness
•• Overall modal couplings are moderate. Critical pitch
Static Stiffness (N/mm) Position (mm) mode is only coupled with less significant roll mode
RHS LHS RR RHS LHS RR
•• Modal separations are sufficient >0.5 Hz
X 55 76 85 -210 310 270
Y 55 60 10 -200 -320 265 •• Powertrain Rigid Body modes at no torque
Z 95 112 10 90 -100 -45 •• Moderate coupling and Pitch mode is coupled with Roll
© SAE International and © SAE India mode. Modal separations are good. Overall good
modal alignment.

TABLE 5  Dynamic Stiffness Matrix

•• Mount force in max. forward and backward drive torque
condition within the range of mount force-deflection
Dynamic Stiffness at 25 Hz, ±0.1 mm curve in X&Y direction
RHS LHS RR
X 180 377 460
Y 150 95 115 Conclusion
Z 260 95 115
© SAE International and © SAE India EV engine mounting system doesn’t require to address firing
order vibrations and easy to place modes which is always
tough in regular engines like 3 cylinder balanced or
Assuming dynamic to static ratio 1.3 the dynamic stiff- unbalanced engines.
ness matrix at 15 Hz, ±0.1 as follows EV engine mounting system requires a stiff engine
Max torque = 115 N.m, mounting to balance following parameters
Gear ratio: 1st = a, Final = b
T max = 1131 N.m, 1. Key on/off issue and idle vibration
Mass and inertia matrix: 2. Low weight and inertia
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ENGINE MOUNTING SYSTEM DESIGN APPROACH FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES 7

3. Higher order excitations 4. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-

4. High torque variations-durability & tip in/tip out 33832-8_14.
5. A2MAC1 Site, https://portal.a2mac1.com/.
However, small resonance need careful treatment as
engine related noise will not be there in EV system.
A quick comparison with other EV vehicles on A2MAC1
[5] benchmarking database shows how the Vehicle XX motor Contact Information
mounting design compares to other EVs: Sandip Hazra
sandip.hazra@tatamotors.com

TABLE 6  Benchmarking system weight comparison

Vehicles Material Mass (kg)

Definitions/Abbreviations
VW Golf VII e-Golf 2014 Aluminium 4.9 A, B, C - constants
Renault Zoe ZE 2013 Steel 18.2
CG - center of gravity
Mitsubishi i-Miev 2011 Steel 7.1
DSR - Driver’s seat rail
Vehicle XX - Baseline Steel 5.5
Vehicle XX - Optimised Design Steel 5.40
Dof - degrees of freedom
© SAE International and © SAE India EV - Electric vehicle
F - frequency
I - Inertia
References ICE - Internal combustion engine
KOKO - Key on and key off
1. Freeman, T., Thom, B., and Smith, S., “Noise and Vibration M - mass
Development for Adapting a Conventional Vehicle Platform NVH - Noise vibration and harshness
for an Electric Powertrain,” SAE Technical Paper 2013-01-
2003, 2013, doi:10.4271/2013-01-2003. OEM - original equipment manufacturer
2. Shang Guan, W.B., “Engine Mounts and Power Train PTMS - Powertrain mounting system
Mounting Systems: A Review,” International Journal of T - torque
Vehicle Design 49(4):237-258, 2009. TRR - Torque Roll Restrictor
3. Zeng, X., Liette, J., Noll, S., and Singh, R., “Analysis of Motor WOT - Wide open throttle
Vibration Isolation System with Focus on Mount Resonances
for Application to Electric Vehicles,” SAE Int. J. Alt. Power W - frequency
4(2):370-377, 2015, doi:10.4271/2015-01-2364. x,y,u - displacement

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