A Survey of Sound and Vibration Interaction 2005-01-2472

When driving or riding in a vehicle, the customer is bombarded with sensory stimuli. These include tactile, auditory, olfactory and visual. In addition, the customer may be asked to perform various routine driving tasks that can have an influence on the perception of each of the aforementioned senses. Or perhaps, the influence of one sense may affect the perception of another. Since sound rarely occurs void of felt vibration and vice-versa, there is reason to believe one may influence the perception of the other, or that the two may interact in some way when the customer is exposed to a particular NVH (Noise Vibration and Harshness) event in a vehicle. The NVH engineer wishes to gage a sound or vibration's impact on the customer and make a determination as to whether corrective actions on the vehicle are necessary. NVH issues routinely show up as top warranty and customer satisfaction concerns. Having a thorough understanding of the influence of sound and vibration on the customer is paramount in making sure vehicles are produced that meet the customer's expectations.

The purpose of this paper is to survey the literature and to provide a general understanding of the current state of thinking when it comes to sound and vibration interaction. A review of past work involving aircraft and railway sound and vibration is presented along with two recent studies conducted at Ford's Vehicle Vibration Simulator (VVS) Laboratory. While the past studies with railway and aircraft sound and vibration showed varying degrees of sound and vibration interaction, the results of two VVS studies showed little evidence of interaction. Additionally, both sound and vibration appeared to contribute about equally to the overall NVH perception.