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The next generation of automotive engines has to meet 2004 emission limits, ideally with improved fuel economy and with noise emission which is at least 3 dBA below the current status. Using both simulation and experimental analysis these challenging requirements can only be fulfilled by clearly defining all key steps in NVH development and by applying suitable technological methods. The development procedure discussed in this paper is characterised by several aspects: two stage prediction procedure fully integrated in the design process, combustion development with a definite focus on noise, a closed loop between simulation and test bed development and consideration of noise in the calibration of engine and drivetrain management systems. Apart from meeting target noise levels, noise quality is the reference parameter which is continuously evaluated by means of the AVL Annoyance Index.

Within the PNGV program, very challenging targets in respect to vehicle fuel economy were set. These could not be met with today's gasoline engines and driveline concepts. One possible alternative approach is a hybrid vehicle with a small displacement engine that exceeds the fuel economy of conventional engines: the 1.2L DIATA (Direct-Injection-Aluminum-Throughbolt-Assembly) engine. Within the development of a CIDI engine the NVH aspects are of particular importance as the customer (i.e., driver) should not notice any negative difference to gasoline engines. Therefore, gasoline engine transparency in respect to NVH was one primary goal within the development process. This paper describes the implementation of NVH features into the engine design already in the initial concept design phases, and the consequent NVH optimization throughout the development phase.

In diesel engine trucks, the sound quality improvement as well as the noise level reduction is demanded because of their annoying exterior noise. The semantic differential method was applied to evaluate the sound quality of trucks. In order to improve the analytical accuracy, subjects who can evaluate the characteristics of sound quality were statistically selected among all the subjects. Comfortability and powerfulness were extracted as the principal components by using the data of the selected subjects. It has been clarified that the comfortability strongly relates to high frequency element ratio, high frequency level, etc. The powerfulness strongly relates to the Zwicker loudness.

Spherical beamforming was used to visualize sound radiation during a vehicle passby test. Forward and backward propagation procedures are compared in terms of computational expense. A spherical spreading correction factor is described, along with a maximum liklihood procedure for obtaining an optimal array weighting dependent on the relative distance between the microphones and the focus point. The de-Dopplerized microphone outputs are multiplied by the weighting factors and summed to yield the source strengths over a reconstruction plane “attached” to the vehicle. Results obtained using a 16 element sparse array during an actual passby are used to demonstrate the present approach.

All new European vehicles face strict drive-by noise regulations. It would help vehicle designers if they could predict drive-by noise given parameters available early in the design process. The large amount of data from previous tests suggests a new approach, using neural networks. This paper introduces neural networks and describes how to apply them to the prediction problem. The selection of suitable inputs and amount of data required is discussed. The problem can be simplified by first predicting vehicle performance. Interim results for a vehicle performance neural network are presented. Further work towards a drive-by noise neural network is proposed.

Brake squeal, which is a noise, occurs in the range of frequencies 1 to 16 kHz is an important task for research to develop the vehicle passenger comfort. This phenomena has been studied many years theoretically and experimentally to gain better performance of brake and eliminating the squeal problem. The work presented here is focusing on the effect of the brake pad manufacturing on the generation of brake squeal. A simple proposed three-degree of freedom model has been used in the study to simulate the brake components (pad, caliper, and disc). The brake squeal and frequency response of brake pad has been measured at different working conditions (pressure, sliding speed, and brake pad type). A comparison between the theoretical and experimental work has been made and a good agreement was found between the theoretical prediction of the brake assembly natural frequency and the experimental measurement.

In this study, multi-planar Nearfield Acoustical Holography (NAH) is used to investigate noise radiated from the front, side and rear areas of single tires on a two-wheel trailer. Contributions to the radiated noise from the leading edge, trailing edge, and sidewall of the tire are identified. Two tires - an experimental monopitch tire and a production passenger car tire - are evaluated on a smooth asphalt pavement at 58 km/hr. From the measured complex pressure, acoustic intensity is reconstructed on three planes surrounding the tire using modified NAH procedures. Additionally, sound power levels are presented in tabulated and spectra forms. Tire noise generating mechanisms are inferred based on the results.

This paper discusses the methods of reducing weight of sound package through a new approach in sound absorption and insulation. In contrast to conventional sound package theory, a light porous material with high absorption (Ultra Light material) is used to replace a conventional porous/barrier sandwich material (classic), which results in an equivalent or better noise reduction in-vehicle with significant weight reduction. A Noise Reduction (NR) test was conducted with a box equipped with both the Ultra Light material and classic material. A SEA model of the same setup was also analyzed. Results from both the test and the analysis show that it is possible to achieve weight reduction by replacing conventional porous/barrier sandwich materials with light porous materials with high absorption.

During the development of a Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) model, the most important step leading toward higher quality and confidence is the model validation process. In this paper, three different ideal source environments are employed to validate a SEA model of a minivan; diffuse field in a reverberation room, free field in an hemi-anechoic room and single-point excitation by a shaker. The tests were intended to emphasize the air-and structure-borne paths of the model separately. During the reverberation room test, capability of the model to track the design changes was checked by perturbing the configuration of the vehicle in successive steps. Finally, the performance of the validated SEA model is demonstrated by using an operational load case.

An approximate analysis method for brake squeal is presented. Using MSC/NASTRAN a geometric nonlinear solution is run using a friction stiffness matrix to model the contact between the pad and rotor. The friction coefficient can be pressure dependent. Next, linearized complex modes are found where the interface is set in a slip condition. Since the entire interface is set sliding, it produces the maximum friction work possible during the vibration. It is a conservative measure for stability evaluation. An averaged friction coefficient is measured and used during squeal. Dynamically unstable modes are found during squeal. They are due to friction coupling of neighboring modes. When these modes are decoupled, they are stabilized and squeal is eliminated. Good correlation with experimental results is shown. It will be shown that the complex modes baseline solution is insensitive to the type of variations in pressure and velocity that occur in a test schedule.

Environmental concerns as well as regulatory requirements are driving the development of alternative vehicle propulsion systems. Electric vehicles (EV's) are attractive because they emit no pollutants. In this paper, we examine the sound quality characteristics of wind and powertrain noise in electric vehicles. Sound quality is an important attribute of EV's, because the expectation is that they will be very quiet due to the absence of an internal combustion engine. As we show in this paper, the absence of engine noise is both a blessing and a curse for sound quality. For wind noise, the results show that electric and gasoline vehicles have equivalent wind noise loudness levels at all speeds. However, at lower speeds (50-60 mph), the EV is judged to have more wind noise even though the level was the same as the gasoline vehicle! The difference is that, in the EV, there is no engine noise to mask the wind noise.

The exterior and interior noise level of passenger cars has been reduced in the past to a large extent by legislation and on the demand of the car purchasers. One important marketing aspect today is the possibility to enjoy driving, which is determined by the noise quality and not the noise level inside passenger cars. However the interior noise quality of today's passenger cars does not always satisfy the people affected. In the development process of a vehicle, the noise quality is determined on a subjective basis by test drivers. A great deal of experience and time is required for the subjective assessment and for the further definition of strategies and their application to meet sound engineering targets for noise quality. This paper reports on the result of a R&D program to develop a software based Noise Quality Map with which the interior noise quality of passenger cars can be determined on an objective basis by measurement in real-time.

Transfer Path Analysis (TPA) is a widely used methodology in Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) analysis of motor vehicles. Either it is used to design a vehicle from scratch or it is applied to root cause an existing NVH problem, TPA can be a useful tool. TPA analysis is closely related to the concept of partial contribution. The very basic assumption in TPA is that the summation of all partial contributions from different paths constitutes the total response (which could be either tactile or acoustic). Another popular concept in NVH analysis of vehicles is the component sensitivity. Component sensitivity is a measure of how much the response changes due to a change in one of the components of the system, i.e., the thickness of a panel or elastic rate of an engine mount. Sensitivity rates are more popular among CAE/Simulation community, simply because they are reasonably easy to calculate using mathematical models.

An overview of model development for seated occupants is presented. Two approaches have been investigated for modeling the vertical response of a seated dummy: finite element and simplified mass-spring-damper methods. The construction and implementation of these models are described, and the various successes and drawbacks of each modeling approach are discussed. To evaluate the performance of the models, emphasis was also placed on producing accurate, repeatable measurements of the static and dynamic characteristics of a seated dummy.

Chemically and heat reactive, expandable sealants are used as “acoustical baffles” in the automotive industry. These acoustic baffles are used to impede noise, water and dust propagation inside of structural components and body cavities. Use of these sealant materials has grown significantly as the demands to improve vehicle acoustic performance has increased. Various test methods have been developed to quantify the performance of these materials through direct comparison of material samples. These investigations use standardized testing procedures to characterize the acoustic performance of a material sample on the basis of controlled laboratory test conditions. This paper presents a step in the progression of evaluating acoustic baffle performance in the vehicle. Standard experimental techniques are used to investigate the influence of the baffles on the vehicle acoustic performance.

Class 8 truck manufacturers use a wide variety of materials for cab floor construction. These include traditional steel and aluminum plate as well as aluminum honey-comb and balsa wood core composites. Each of these materials has unique transmission loss properties. The acoustical performance of the floor system, (cab floor, decoupler, and barrier) depends not only on the acoustical performance of the decoupler and barrier, but also on the cab floor material. This paper outlines an experimental technique for selecting an acoustical floormat system utilizing vehicle and laboratory tests that takes these factors into account.

Weight reduction with maintained part performance is a continuing trend throughout the automotive industry. Acoustical insulation parts (carpet underlay and dash insulators) are no exception. Several years ago, ICI Polyurethanes led the industry in establishing a molded density standard of 48 kg/m3. Although this is the current production standard, the technology drive is toward even lower weights. Recent technological demonstrations show that molded densities of 35-38 kg/m3 are achievable. In addition to removing weight, acoustical performance can be maintained with no deficiencies in physical characteristics.

The area in the neighborhood of the package tray can be a significant path for road noise and exhaust noise. Air extraction routes and loudspeakers add to the difficulty of effective system design. A variety of designs were prototyped and their transmission loss measured in a standard SAE J1400 sound transmission loss suite. The performance of the various designs was compared to an untrimmed piece of sheet metal with embedded air extraction holes. The addition of trim added from 1 dB to 14 dB to the transmission loss. Statistical energy analysis (SEA) models of a variety of package tray systems will also be shown. Both of these techniques can provide design guidance at an early stage of vehicle program development.

This paper presents a software-driven procedure for continuous assessment facilitating an evaluation of non-stationary sound quality. The noise stimuli are presented to the test persons via headphones and a subwoofer from a personal computer. The key feature of the rating procedure is the “zonal pairwise comparison” for the time zones at the beginning and the end of the noise sequences. Evaluation of data together with time variant objective parameters by means of statistical methods is described. The results and models from multiple regession analysis are given.