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During the last decade, fuel economy mandates (CAFE regulations) have driven engine downsizing and down-speeding trends. More recently, downsized turbos are percolating down to heavier SUVs and trucks. Larger/heavier vehicles require high torque engines to provide attractive dynamic performance. While higher torque requirements can be satisfied with new innovations like the variable compression engine, larger and more upscale vehicles also need to deliver higher quietness requirements. For this, the vibration control system for combustion induced forces with high torque engines become very important. To address both dynamic performance and quietness requirements, active engine mounts have been previously adopted, however challenges for light-weighting, downsizing, and costs have still persisted.

A finite element (FE) model of vibro-acoustic coupling analysis, such as a vehicle noise and vibration, is utilized for the improvement of the performance in the vehicle development phase. However, the accuracy of the analysis is not enough for substituting a prototype phase with a digital phase in the product development phases. Therefore, conducting the experiments with the prototype vehicle or the existed production vehicle is still very important for the performance evaluation and the model validation. The vehicle noise transfer function of the road noise performance cannot be evaluated with the existed excitation equipment, such as the 3 or 6 directional electromagnetic shaker. Therefore, this paper proposes new experimental method to measure the road noise vehicle transfer function. This method is based on the reciprocity between the tire contact patch and the driver's ear location.

Recently, urgent needs have arisen for improving the fuel economy of passenger cars. To improve the fuel comsumption, it is necessary to develop a technology that can improve fuel efficiency and weight-saving. This paper describes the development of a soundproof package to balance weight-saving with performance of acoustic isolation used to reduce engine noise. First, we developed a hybrid statistical energy analysis (HSEA) model to evaluate the performance. Second, by using the HSEA model, we (1) analyzed the power flow and dominant path from noise source to interior cavity, (2) extracted efficient sections such as dash, dash penetration parts, and floor so as to improve the performance. Using the above process, we developed a soundproof package that improves the performance without increasing the weight. As a result, we balanced weight-saving with performance of acoustic isolation using the HSEA model.