Automotive engine mounts are used to support engine weight, protect engine from road inputs and isolate transmission of vibrations created by the engine, which has a drastic effect on the noise generated inside the passenger cabin. Most common types of engine mounts are elastomeric and hydraulic mounts, the former having better vibration isolation characteristics whereas the latter displays better shock isolation. Elastomeric mounts are widely used for their low initial cost, while hydraulic mounts with inertia track and decoupler are chosen for their good vibration isolation and shock excitation characteristics. However, hydraulic mounts with inertia track and decoupler are not appropriate for small segment and commercial vehicles due their high initial cost. In this thesis, the effect of the addition of a dry friction damper on the performance of elastomeric automobile engine mounts is investigated. Friction dampers are used to attenuate vibration amplitudes in many applications such as gas turbine engines, railway vehicles, space structures and civil buildings. In this study, a friction element is added to the engine mount at its axial direction and its effect is studied. Results show that, the addition of dry friction damping to the original system increases vibration isolation performance significantly at low frequencies / whereas, due to the increased stiffness of the system, at high frequencies dry friction damper has a mitigating effect on performance. In order to overcome this problem, original system parameters are modified. In the modified system a softer mount that increase vibration isolation performance at high frequencies / but, which might cause excessive static deflection due to reduced stiffness of the system is used. On the other hand, addition of dry friction damping prevents excessive static deflections due to the increased stiffness effect and also increases the performance at high frequencies due to the soft mount. Final results showed that vibration isolation performance at low frequencies increases considerably while vibration isolation performance at high frequency is similar and even slightly better than the original system with addition of dry friction damping.

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