DE VELO PMENT Ac OUSTIc S | N V H

ACTIVE ENGINE MOUNT SYSTEM

IN THE NEW AUDI S8

Audi has tted an active, mechatronically-controlled engine mount system in its new S8 model. This allows
the fuel-saving cylinder management system to deactivate four of the V8 engines cylinders across a broad
engine speed and load range, without compromising on comfort for the occupants of the car.
34

AUTHORS

DIPL.-ING. STEPHAN RMLING

is Project Manager for Active Engine
Mount Systems at the Audi AG
in Ingolstadt (Germany).

DIPL.-ING. (FH) STEFANVOLLMANN

is Test Engineer for Active Engine
Mount Systems at the Audi AG
in Ingolstadt (Germany).

DIPL.-ING. TORSTEN KOLKHORST

is Head of the Engine/Gearbox
Mountings Development at the
Audi AG in Ingolstadt (Germany).

Five-point mounting in the Audi S8

ACOUSTIC CHALLENGES

The new Audi S8 uses a five-point

mounting principle, , with the objectives of positioning the drivetrain in the
vehicle and resisting driveline torque.
For premium-category cars, insulation
from disturbing engine vibration and the
damping of drivetrain vibration caused
by excitation from the road surface are
especially important.
A new feature of the Audi S8 is cylinder cut-off when not required, known to
Audi as so-called cylinder on demand.
Depending on the power requirement,
four of the eight cylinders of the new
4.0-l V8 TFSI engine are deactivated. The
aim of this measure is for the customer
to benefit from the maximum possible
reduction in fuel consumption. When
four of the eight cylinders are deactivated
but the demand for torque and power does
not change, the remaining cylinders have
a different operating point. The raised
load point displaces the operating point
to regions in which specific fuel consumption is lower. It is this effect that
leads to a definite reduction in fuel consumption. The change in firing order
during four-cylinder operation naturally
gives rise to increased excitation. This
more marked low-frequency excitation
represents a challenge when developing
drivetrain mounts; this will be discussed
in more detail later.
The same four cylinders are always
deactivated, namely two in each cylinder

bank. The cylinders for deactivation have

been ingeniously chosen to retain a uniform firing sequence equivalent to that
of a conventional four-cylinder engine,
though as would be expected the fourcylinder engine runs with greater vibration than would be encountered from a
V8 engine.
As is well known, there are eight ignition sparks on every two revolutions of
an eight-cylinder engine. As the crankshaft rotates, these ignition impulses are
superimposed, resulting in a relatively
well-balanced total impulse signal of the
fourth engine order. This in turn ensures
smooth engine running that is scarcely
noticeable inside the car. If four of the
cylinders are then deactivated, every second ignition spark is eliminated and the
mutual equalisation of the ignition im
pulses is reduced, since the inertial forces
in the engine remain the same. As a result
the individual ignition impulses become
more noticeable. This is felt as second
engine order vibration typical of a fourcylinder engine, but of course not typical
of a V8 and undesirable for this class of
car, . The new Audi S8 can be described
as having two engines in a single car,
and these must be designed to take acoustic demands and freedom from vibration
into account for the complete vehicle.
Drivetrain vibration and noise are
transmitted to the interior of a vehicle
along various paths. Part of this input
(e.g. engine noise and noise at the
exhaust tailpipe) reaches the drivers ear
by an airborne path; another part is conveyed through the structure, that is to
say directly via the engine mounts and
the body to the interior, . In order to
reap the full potential benefit of cylinder
on demand, it is essential for the engine
to operate in the V4 mode even at the
lowest possible engine speeds and at
high loads. It is desirable for the customer, regardless of the actual driving
situation, not to notice that the engine is
operating in the slightly rougher V4
mode. Since conventional technical solutions provide only limited scope for tuning, the Audi S8 has been provided with
several active systems, including ANC
(active noise control) and the new active
engine mounts.
ACTIVE ENGINE MOUNT SYSTEM

The engine mounts have always exerted

a major influence on in-car refinement. A
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DE VELO PMENT Ac oustic s | N V H

Orders of engine vibration in the V8 and V4 modes (schematic view)

distinction has to be made between

acoustic properties (dynamic stiffness,
hardening of rubber) and freedom from
vibration (static stiffness, damping
behaviour); there is normally a conflict
of objectives between them. Audi currently distinguishes between three types
of engine mount:
:: hydraulic engine mounts
:: switchable hydraulic engine mounts
:: active hydraulic engine mounts.
These three types of mount are
installed according to the cars requirement profile and as a means of maintaining Audis premium claim for its
cars. The hydraulic and switchable
hydraulic mounts have been state-ofthe-art at Audi for some time, and are
installed on all model lines with a
longitudinal engine.

active so-called tuned mass damper,

which is a separate component attached
at a suitable point on the body, to which
it transmits its own oscillations.
According to the state-of-the-art, various types of actuator are known and can
function within the mount:
:: in solenoids, a metal plate is actuated
by alternating field, with return spring;
a permanent magnet is not necessary;
the change in the size of the air gap
makes the action non-linear
:: oscillating coil actuators have a moving alternating-field coil and permanent magnet field; highly linear force
path, low moving masses, movable
coil connection; strong technical construction familiar from loudspeakers

CONSTRUCTION OF THE
ACTIVE ENGINE MOUNT

Audi defines hydraulic or switchable

hydraulic engine mounts as passive
bearings. An active engine mount, in
contrast, generates a force inside the
mount that acts through the mounts
support spring. In this way a counterforce can be developed to act in the
opposite direction to engine vibration
and compensate for it. The aim is to
eliminate vibration directly in its transmission path. This is in contrast to an

36

Acoustic transmission paths in the car

:: linear electromagnetic actuators have

moving permanent magnet in alternating field coil; linearity, high moving
mass, high inductivity makes force
build-up more difficult
:: in piezo actuators the piezo element
expands when a voltage is applied,
and can be stacked (inline arrangement) for use as an actuator; high linearity, high forces generated at very
low amplitudes
:: in magneto-rheological (MR) hydraulic
mounts the viscosity of the MR fluid
changes, and with it the dynamic
characteristics of the mount; cannot
actively generate a counter-force.
For the Audi S8 installation a mount
with an oscillating coil actuator was cho-

sen. As with a hydraulic engine mount,

this mount consists of a supporting body
with a fluid chamber beneath it. The
fluid can flow through the external
damping channel into the lower equalising space, the size of which is limited by
the bellows. The upper fluid chamber
has a rubber diaphragm as a barrier. The
actuator is attached to this diaphragm,
and consists of a permanent magnet surrounded by two iron armatures. This
creates an enclosed magnetic field of
high field strength. The coil moves within
this magnetic field; it is attached to the
diaphragm ring by way of the coil carrier. If an electric current flows through
the coil, the field of the permanent magnet applies a force to it and causes the
coil to move within the magnetic field.
The diaphragm is deflected in accordance with this movement. It applies pressure to the fluid in the actuating chamber, so that the rubber support spring is
caused to move, . This movement does
not take place until the excitation frequencies are above 20Hz and the damping channel is closed hydraulically.
COMPLETE SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

Apart from the two active engine

mounts, the complete engine mount system includes two acceleration sensors
and a new control unit especially developed for the active mounts, . As well
as being connected to the engine mounts
and the relevant sensors, the control unit
is incorporated into the complete vehicles CAN network. There is also a direct
line to the engine management control
unit, for transmission of the speed signal
from the crankshaft.

Layout of mount and actuator with lines of magnetic flux

no feedback concerning the quality of

the regulating action.
The Audi S8 uses a closed-loop system
with a signal feedback. The increase in
vibration resulting from less smooth running in the four-cylinder mode is detected
by the acceleration sensors and transmitted to the active engine mount control
unit. At the same time this receives the
direct crankshaft speed signal from the
engine management control unit which
needs to be without shift in time or phase.
From these signals the algorithm in the
control unit calculates a counter-signal
in real time and uses it to energise the
actuators. The actuators then generate a
counter-force in the mount that acts on
the rubber supporting body, and is
superimposed on the vibration from the

engine. If the vibration from the mount

has the same amplitude as the engine
vibration but a phase displacement of
180, the two vibrations cancel each
other out according to the destructive
interference principle.
The acceleration sensor on the mount
measures the resulting actual body acceleration and feeds it to the algorithm in
the closed loop. This enables the actual
amount of compensation to be determin
ed and, in the next calculation step, the
new parameters to be used to modify the
following actuator adjusting signal. In this
way the system can adapt itself continuously to changed levels of disturbance.
The algorithm is designed to determine the actual sine and cosine proportions in the frequency range from the

SYSTEM FUNCTION

Various state-of-the-art methods for

influencing mount characteristics or for
active control are known. If the adaptive
engine mount system uses magneto-rheological fluid, the mounts dynamic
properties can be modified, but with this
type of mount an active counter-force
cannot be generated. The mount can
only be adapted to suit various requirements by altering the viscosity of the
fluid. Active systems using an open-loop
control principle are in use. Actuating
signals calculated from a range of data
are supplied to the engine mount, and
influence the transmission path. There is
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Complete system architecture

37

DE VELO PMENT Ac oustic s | N V H

Schematic view of measured results in driving mode

engine-excited sine-wave vibrations over

a period. The vector of the resulting
vibration is then reduced as much as
possible by a sequence of iterative adaptations of the calculation parameters
(phase position, frequency and amplitude) with reference to the crankshaft
signal, which supplies information on
the frequency and phase position of the
engine vibration orders. In ideal circumstances the vector of the resulting vibrations is reduced until close to zero. To
energise the actuator the vector of the
actively generated vibration is converted
back into a sine-wave signal and supplied to the mount at a suitable power
level. In this way the orders of engine
vibration can be reduced to the basic
noise level, where they are indistinguishable for the cars occupants. For the second and fourth engine orders, this takes
place between 25 and 250Hz in the fourcylinder operating mode. If necessary,
the mount can develop a force of up to
120N. It is thus also capable of compensating fully for the higher-amplitude
vibrations that occur when the vehicle is
driven at low engine speeds with heavy
loads, (schematic view). The active
engine mounts remain operational when
the engine is idling. Since no switching
unit is available in the active engine
mount for amplitude decoupling as previously known, the task of lowering
dynamic stiffness when idling is performed by the active mounts. The system

38

then compensates fully for the dominant

4th engine order.
Various challenges have to be accepted
when applying the algorithm in real terms
to a vehicle. Compared with a conventional hydraulic engine mount, two
transmission paths have to be taken into
account for every active engine mount:
one of them, already known, is the passive element from the base of the engine
mount through the rubber to the body,
taking the characteristics of the fluid
into account; but there is also an active
element leading from the actuator
through the fluid to the body. Both affect
the transmission of vibration, with differing influences on phase position and
amplitude, which must be taken into
consideration when determining the
algorithm values.
This additional transmission path from
the active element must be recorded for
the algorithm by a technical measurement process, so that the calculation can
be carried out with the appropriate
parameters. It should be noted, however,
that the two engine mount transmission
paths change on account of vehicle component ageing (in particular rubber ageing) and under the influence of temperature changes. The algorithm must either
be suitably amended or must adapt itself
in such a way as to ensure stable operation for the vehicles entire working life.
A further challenge is that the vibration transmission path passes through

both engine mounts. For this reason,

both of them are of the active type.
Since the mounts are linked together
through various structural noise transmission paths in the body and the
engine, they can influence each other,
depending on performance and operating situation. This cross-coupling has
to be taken suitably into consideration
in order to avoid undesirable control
effects.
OUTLOOK

The active engine mounts are the first

mechatronic system to be applied to a
motor vehicles drivetrain mountings.
Counter-vibrations generated by the
mounts are essential if full value is to be
obtained from cylinder on demand. The
V8 TFSI engine can then be run in the
four-cylinder mode in load areas that
promise the greatest fuel saving potential, without the customer being aware of
any shortfall in refinement. Media comments confirm success in the fuel economy, reduced vibration and engine
acoustic areas. There is no basic reason
why active engine mounts should not be
adopted for other drivetrains, especially
for vehicle and driveline concepts in
which conventional mounts come up
against their limits. In such cases active
engine mount systems will be used more
frequently in the future to compensate
for unwanted vibration.

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