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A new approach to achieve better customer perception of overall vehicle quietness is the sound balance improvement of vehicle interior sound during driving. Interior sound is classified into 3 primary sound source shares such as engine sound relative to revolution speed, tire road noise and wind noise relative to vehicle speed. Each interior sound shares are classified using the synchronous time-domain averaging method. The sound related to revolution order of engine and auxiliaries is considered as engine sound share, tire road noise and wind noise shares are extracted by multiple coherent output power analysis. Sound balance analysis focuses on improving the relative difference in interior sound share level between the 3 primary sound sources. Virtual sound simulator which is able to represent various driving conditions and able to adjust imaginary sound share is built for several vehicles in same compact segment.

The sound sources of modern road vehicle can be classified into three components, driving sound (sound generated through normal driving patterns and events), operating sound (sound generated through actuated components not related to driving), and generated synthetic sound (electronic warning / interactive feedback). The characteristic features of these sounds are dependent upon customer expectation and usage requirements. Additional development complexities are introduced due to each market's cultural and regional differences. These differences in preference must be considered for the establishment of the target sound quality in the early vehicle development process. In this paper, a sound quality goal setting procedure based on user preference is introduced. The sound targets are created as a result of the user preference investigation and validated by intercultural comparison.

Shock absorber transient noise, often referred to as “chuckle” or “loose lumber”, has been a vehicle level noise and vibration concern for many years. The noise often occurs with lightly damped shock tuning under small road inputs at low speed. This transient type noise is of particular concern to the operator because it can sound like mechanical looseness in the chassis. This noise concern is generally addressed late in the design cycle and the options of a fix are limited to a change in damper tuning or added mass. A need for a wider design envelope exists to address this concern which must include noise paths into the structure and body sensitivity. The study documented in this paper walks through the process of acquiring this noise on the road and reproducing it in the lab on a 4-post hydraulic test rig.