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In today’s automotive industry sound package material design and optimization is important considering the need for weight reduction and achieving targeted sound absorption and sound transmission loss values. As per traditional approach vehicle level noise reduction targets are defined considering flat samples, but in actual vehicle condition molded trimmed parts are used. This paper discusses about the systematic methodology developed for molded sample characterization in terms of BIOT’s properties. Effects of different parameters like area wise thickness variation, density variation on BIOT properties is studied. Comparison of BIOT’s properties of flat and molded dash sample is done to study the effect of molded structure. Using these BIOT’s properties prediction of sound absorption and sound transmission loss results carried out using FTMM approach for flat sample and SEA approach for molded sample.

In-cab booming noise is low frequency (20 Hz∼300 Hz) phenomenon excites the cabin structure, which occurs mainly due to excitations from the powertrain, exhaust system, road input, etc. Annoyance due to booming noise affects the In-cab sound quality, which results in passenger discomfort. A diesel passenger car observed booming noise issue when operated at stationary as well as dynamic run-up conditions. In order to increase passenger comfort, experimental root cause analysis conducted on the vehicle to investigate the dominant sources for the cavity boom. Exhaust hanger and one of the engine mount identified as major reason for the booming noise in the cabin. A detailed study was carried out on dynamic property optimization of rubber hanger and possibility to relocate the hanger to improve the vibration transmissibility. Operational measurements conducted on vehicle by attaching finalized exhaust mount to confirm the significant booming noise reduction in the cabin.

Any metal component undergoes various treatments to get desired shape and desired properties. Some of the important properties are strength, hardness, % elongation etc. which comes under mechanical properties. These properties can be easily achieved through heat-treatment process. Typical example of heat-treatment processes are hardening and tempering in case of steel and aging process in case of aluminium alloys. Some of the new emerging materials viz. micro alloy steel does not require any hardening and tempering if cooling rate is maintained. Heat-treatment cycle depends on material grade and its alloying elements. A heat-treatment cycle for any grade is generally fixed based on conventional methods but they are not optimized. The need of hour is to optimize the heat-treatment cycle to improve productivity and energy consumption. Dilatometer is used to optimize heat-treatment cycle on sample level whereas simulation tools can be used for component level.

Diesel engine generators are commonly used as a power source for various industrial and residential applications. While designing diesel generator (DG) enclosures requirements of noise control, ventilation and physical protection needs to be addressed. Indian legislation requirement demands DG enclosure insertion loss (IL) to be minimum 25 dB. However for certain critical applications like hospitals, residential apartments customer demands quiet DG sets than the statutory limits. IL targets for such application ranges between 35-40 dB. The objective of this paper is to develop methodology to design ‘Super Silent’ enclosure with IL of 35 dB by Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) approach for small capacity DG set. Major challenge was to achieve IL of 35 dB with single enclosure and making use of SEA technique for small size enclosure wherein modal densities is very less. Major airborne noise sources like engine, radiator fan and exhaust were modelled by capturing noise source test data.

Urbanisation has led to an increased need for mobility in public transportation. Sensing the unfolding worrisome scenario, many countries have taken up different mass rapid transit solutions to alleviate the problem and restore the free flowing traffic. BRT should have been the logical choice particularly considering the lower capital costs involved and faster implementation. Comprehensibly the expectations of this class of vehicles will be high in term of quality and comfort to the passengers. Level of vibration and noise is an important indicator to evaluate vehicle's ride comfort. The challenges are to design the high powered Powertrain and Air Conditioning system nonetheless low interior noise, vibration and harshness correspondents to personal cars. This paper is an invention of, development work done in interior noise refinement of a bus. A prototype bus manufactured to meet all the requirement of BRT - premium segment urban bus.

Diesel powered electric generators are used in a variety of applications, such as emergency back-up power, temporary primary power at industrial facilities, etc. As regulatory and customer requirements demand quieter designs, special attention is given to the design of acoustic enclosures to balance the need of noise control with other performance criteria like ventilation and physical protection. In the present work, Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) approach augmented by experimental inputs is used to carry out Vibro-acoustic analysis of an enclosure for higher capacity Diesel generator set. The exterior sound radiated from an enclosed generator is predicted and further enclosure is optimized for an improved sound-suppression. The airborne sources such as engine, alternator, radiator fan and exhaust are modelled explicitly using experimental noise source characterization. Structure borne inputs are also captured in the test for improving modelling accuracy.

The paper discusses the methodology for measuring the sound absorption of sound package materials in a different sizes of reverberation chambers. The large reverberation chamber is based on test methods and requirements as per ASTM C423 and ISO 354 standards. Both the test standards are similar and recommend a reverberation chamber volume of at least 125 m3 and 200 m3 respectively for sound absorption measurements from 100 Hz to 5000 Hz. The test sample size requirements are from 5.5 to 6.7 m2 as per ASTM C423 and 10 to 12 m2 as per ISO 354. In the automotive sector passenger car, heavy truck, and commercial vehicle, the parts that are used are much smaller in size than the size prescribed in both the standards. The requirement is to study the critical parameters such as the chamber volume, sample size, reverberation time and cut-off frequency etc. which are affecting the sound absorption property of acoustic material.

Sound Quality (SQ) of brake and clutch pedal assembly plays an important role in contributing to vehicle interior noise and perception of sound. Quiet operation of brake and clutch units also reflects the vehicle built and material quality. Noise emitted from these sub-assemblies has to meet certain acceptance criteria as per different OEM requirements. Not much work has been carried on this over the years to characterize and quantify the same. An attempt has been made in this paper to study the sound quality of brake and clutch pedal assemblies at component level and validate the same by identifying the parameters affecting SQ. Effect on noise at different environmental conditions was studied with typical operating cycles in a hemi-anechoic chamber. The effect of sensor switches integrated within the clutch and brake pedal on sound quality is analyzed. It is found that the operating characteristics of switches drives the noise and SQ.

With growing demand of comfort of cars, number of small electric motors used for adjustment of different functional units is steadily increasing. Due to the various rotational components and the forces they accord, electric motors radiate significant amount of noise at high frequencies with tonal components that can be annoying. Motor noise comprises three sources namely: electromagnetic, aerodynamic and mechanical. This study considers mechanical and electromagnetic sources of Electric Power Assisted Steering (EPAS) motor used in passenger cars. This paper describes an approach to assess noise and vibration parameters between field motors and fresh motors. Noise and vibration spectrums are analyzed in terms of frequency contents and dominancy of mechanical sources in sound power radiated by motor is discussed. FE modal analysis of motor is performed and correlated with impact hammer measurements to quantify structure borne energy contribution.

With emission norms getting more and more stringent, the trend is shifting towards electric and hybrid vehicles. Electric motor replaces engine as the prime mover in these vehicles. Though these vehicles are quieter compared to their engine counterpart, they exhibit certain annoying sound quality perception. There is no standard methodology to predict the noise levels of these motors. Electric motor noise comprises of mainly three sources viz., Aerodynamic, Electromagnetic and Mechanical. A methodology has been developed to predict two major noise sources of electric motor out of the three above viz. Mechanical and Aerodynamic noise. These two noise sources are responsible for the tonal noise in an electric motor. Aerodynamic noise arises most often around the fan, or in the vicinity of the machine that behaves like a fan. This noise is predominant at higher motor speed and also in electric vehicle due to higher speed fluctuation.

The design and development of complete vehicle, understanding of chassis system development process is an important task. Chassis frame of a vehicle is supporting member, both structurally and functionally, to all other chassis aggregate systems viz. suspension, steering, braking system etc. In this paper, a methodology for chassis frame model construction and validation is explained. In present work, chassis frame model is validated in terms of modal parameters and also against static loading conditions. Existing chassis 3D Computer Aided Design (CAD) data was generated using scanning and cloud point data conversion technique. FE model was generated and validated through experimental measurements viz. modal testing, vertical bending, lateral bending, and torsional bending test. Loading and boundary conditions were replicated on the complete FE model in CAE domain and test validation was carried out using appropriate mesh biasing and weld modeling techniques.

New process development of forging component requires in-depth knowledge and experience related to the process. Also it requires number of physical trials to arrive at optimum process and initial billet dimensions. With the help of reliable computer simulation tool, it is possible to optimize the complete forging process and billet dimensions. Simulation provides much more insight about the process and possible forging defects. This saves considerable time and money. This paper describes about a complete forging process designed for a complex component. With the help of metal forming simulation software, complete forging process was simulated and optimized. Forging defects were removed during optimization of the process. Billet weight optimization was also carried out. Deciding the preforming shape of the billet was the main challenge. An innovative pre-forging shape was arrived which resulted in eliminating one process stage.

The parameters such as lower noise levels, quietness, etc. of a vehicle has no longer remained the only driving features since the passenger car buyers are greatly influenced by the perception of the sound. In a scenario like this, the sound quality becomes of great importance especially for smaller diesel powertrains as they are more annoying than their gasoline counterparts. The idling noise is critical as its noise creates the first impression of the vehicle on the buyer. The Indian passenger car market is dominated by diesel cars equipped with smaller engines less than 2 liter capacity. Present work describes the methodology to formulate the equation for annoyance/pleasantness for the diesel powertrains used in Indian passenger cars. The index, Sound Annoyance Rating (SAR) developed through this work is significant for powertrain level target setting and benchmarking purposes.

The work presented in this paper deals with the use of non-linear FEA simulation in powertrain development. Prediction of cylinder bore distortion early in the design stage significantly affects overall performance of engine as bore distortion directly affects oil consumption, blowby and emission. The paper presents a methodology for predicting bore distortion with an objective of achieving improved performance of powertrain. For this purpose detailed Finite Element Model of Engine Assembly was prepared, nonlinear interaction between powertrain mating parts was captured by defining contacts, physical behaviour of gasket was captured through experimental testing by extracting loading and unloading pressure closure curve and the same data was used as an input for defining gasket nonlinear properties. Physical assembly sequence was captured by carrying out sequential analysis.

To achieve first time right product in any new part development, the process requires number of trials, skilled manpower, huge cost and massive time. In case of forging process, to develop a new component lot of physical trials are required to be conducted due to the process variations. The need of the hour is shorter development time with highest quality. All these requirements can be achieved with the help of reliable computer simulations. With computer simulation, the process can be optimized and crack analysis can be carried out. Additionally the use of computer simulation in forging process reduces no. of trials, ultimately saves time and energy. The paper deals with forging process optimization by effective use of computer simulation. Existing forging process and modified forging process was simulated.

This paper presents a methodology for predicting thermal comfort inside Midibus cabin with an objective to modify the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) duct design and parametric optimization in order to have improved thermal comfort of occupant. For this purpose the bus cavity is extracted from baseline CAD model including fully seated manikins with various seating positions. Solar Load has been considered in the computational model and passenger heat load is considered as per BSR/ASHRAE 55-1992R standard. CFD simulation predicted the air temperature and velocity distribution inside passenger cabin of the baseline model. The experimental measurements have been carried out as per the guidelines set in APTA-BT-RP-003-07 standard. The results obtained from CFD and Experimental test were analysed as per EVS EN ISO7730 standard and calculated occupant comfort in terms of thermal comfort parameters like Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) and Predicted Percentage Dissatisfied (PPD).

The work presented in this paper deals with the use of combined Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) and experimental testing approach for reducing engine noise. The paper describes a systematic approach for giving solutions to the structure borne engine noise related problems. Noise Source Identification (NSI) was carried out on diesel engine to identify noise radiating sources, ranking of noise sources was carried out and contribution of individual engine component in radiated Sound Power Level (SWL) was computed. Detailed Finite Element Model (FEM) of engine assembly was developed and model was correlated in terms of natural frequencies and transfer functions by performing modal testing. Correlated FEM was used for predicting surface vibration velocities under various engine speeds and loading conditions in frequency domain. Velocities so predicted in frequency domain were used as an input for SWL prediction using Boundary Element Method (BEM) approach.

Greater customer awareness is driving the automotive industry to constantly look to innovate and ensure that greater time, efforts and considerable resources are spent in developing a better vehicle. As we move away from noisy vehicles, the differentiating parameter in vehicles is the perception of quality in the vehicle noise or sound. As the masking effect due to overall vehicle noise level abates, many low noise sources gain prominence, which directly influences the perception of noise refinement. Hence, the concept of vehicle interior noise is not only limited to lower noise levels but has also extended to better sound quality (SQ). SQ technique involves use of relevant parameters for quantifying a subjective quality into an objective quantity. This paper will look at parameters relevant to subjective perception of vehicle interior noise and consider a benchmarking methodology targeting vehicle sound quality.

Modal analysis is a specialized tool which has been used for many years to reliably estimate various parameters such as natural frequency, mode shape and damping. Since these parameters have direct relevance to the behavior of any component or structure and the resultant vibrations, the methods used for evaluation of these have been taken up as a part of this project. MATLAB is a platform that serves analysis purpose and offers many advantages over dedicated, menu driven systems. Open function assure flexibility and possibility to modify functions for specific needs and also providing traceability and quality assurance. The current paper targets to make a comparative evaluation of various modal parameter estimators using existing MATLAB tools for determining modal parameters for simple structures. FRF measurements on simple structures are carried out and the data is processed using MATLAB run parameter estimators.