Aluminium engine mount design

[Calagan]

Hi all

My team use Yamaha monocylinder 450 and a steel space frame.
We would like use rear aluminium engine mount instead of classical steel engine mount.

I looking for informations, advices, feedback about aluminium mount design for monocylinder.

What type of data do you use for design?
explosion frequency
rod inertia
or other things

Thank's for your help

Pierre HOGARD
TASIA09
www.formulastudent-isat.com (http://www.formulastudent-isat.com)

[rjwoods77]

Lehigh FSAE

http://rides.webshots.com/phot...03119050035117LIZhAo (http://rides.webshots.com/photo/1148903119050035117LIZhAo)

[Adambomb]

Hmm, sounds odd. What advantage would aluminum offer? Obviously it couldn't be welded to the rest of the chassis, meaning it would need a bunch of heavy bolts.

We run a Yamaha 450 in a steel space frame, and vibrations are a problem. As in nyloc lock nuts falling off continuously. Do you want Al mounts to help with vibrations? If so, there are a lot better materials for that...

[EPMAl]

In 2008, we used magneto-rheological shocks on our car. The problem was that there was a lot of noise on the potentiometer signals and the model was computing an infinite acceleration, leading to stiffening the shocks as much as it could. Since the car had no possibility to move in pitch, the rear axel was always blocked during braking, skipping and transmitting huge knocks on all the powertrain, including the engine. Our carbon fiber chassis could not resist to it and the the chassis delaminated at our rear engine mounts (which were in aluminum), giving a bit to much freedom of movement to the front engine mount (also in aluminum). The monocoque did not delaminated at the front, but you can see what happened.
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp109/Motoal/IMG_0575.jpg
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp109/Motoal/IMG_0576.jpg

I know this does not sonud good, but other than that, our aluminum mounts performed pretty well. As long as you stiffened them accordingly to your load path, there should not be any problem. To reassure you, on the vibration topic, we run an Aprilia SXV which probably is worst than a monocylinder in terms of vibrations. *

[EPMAl]

Post pending approval.

[Kirk Feldkamp]

If you want a proven, simple, off the shelf solution...

QRC Karts (http://www.qrckarts.com/store/index.cfm/category/30/billet-engine-mounts.cfm)

-Kirk

[Mike Macie]

I'm not sure exactly what the best approach is but some forces you might want to consider: reaction torque, engine shaking forces, and lateral/vertical accelerations.

[Calagan]

Thank's for your answers, I am more optimistic about aluminium mount.
I'll keep you informed about progress on this subject.

Pierre