Design Optimization and Dynamic Analysis of engine mounts and flanges of a marine drivetrain

Abstract

In reality, marine vessels undergo various dynamic loads while breezing through the waters and crashes into the waves. This leads to g-forces experienced by the marine vessel. A marine vessel consists of the main engine, electric machine, and the gearbox coupled by flanges and their respective brackets mounted to the vessel by rubberized mounts. Due to varying loads, the brackets and the mounts experience forces on them and, in return, produce reaction forces. In addition to this, the weights of each component contribute to the moment of the system at the flanges. An analytical method was developed in [1] to estimate these forces on the mounts and the moments on the flanges. This thesis focuses on optimizing the design to minimize these loads experienced and to conduct a dynamic analysis of the whole system.