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Automakers have reported that passenger perception of vehicle interior wind noise is strongly correlated to the non-Gaussian and non-stationary character of the exterior aero-acoustic wind loading. Researchers in other domains have shown that leptokurtic non-Gaussian loading (Kurtosis κ>3) can be synthesized by non-stationary modulation of otherwise Gaussian random loading. This paper introduces a transient statistical energy analysis (SEA) model for the aero-vibro acoustic transmission of non-stationary wind noise which uses the same approach - a modulation of otherwise Gaussian random fluctuating pressure loading, in each one third octave band. The authors have previously shown that the non-stationary character of random wind loading can be measured in a wind tunnel or on the road with a suitable surface pressure microphone array.

Measurements of interior wind noise sound pressure level have shown that dBA and Loudness are not adequate metrics of wind noise sound quality due to non-stationary characteristics such as temporal modulation and impulse. A surface microphone array with high spatio-temporal resolution has been used to measure and analyze the corresponding non-stationary characteristics of the exterior aero-acoustic loading. Wavenumber filtering is used to observe the unsteady character of the low wavenumber aero-acoustic loading components most likely to be exciting glass vibration and transmitting sound.

Surface pressure measurements using microphone arrays are still challenging, especially in an automotive context with cruising speeds around Mach 0.1. The separated turbulent boundary layer excitation and the side mirror wake flow generate both acoustic and aerodynamic components, which have wavenumbers that differ by a factor of approximately 10. This calls for high spatial resolution measurements to fully resolve the wavenumber-frequency spectrum. In a previous publication [1], the authors reported a micro-electro-mechanical (MEMS) surface microphone array that successfully used wavenumber analysis to quantify acoustic versus turbulence loading. It was shown that the measured surface pressure at each microphone could be strongly influenced by self-noise induced by the microphone “packaging”, which can be attenuated with a suitable windscreen.

The authors report on the design and application of a high resolution micro-electro-mechanical (MEMS) microphone array for automotive wind noise engineering. The array integrates both sensors and random access memory (RAM) chips on a flexible circuit board that eliminates high channel count wiring and allows the array to be deployed on automobile surfaces in a convenient “stick-on/peel-off” configuration. These arrays have potential application to the quantitative evaluation of interior wind noise from measurements on a clay model in the wind tunnel, when used in conjunction with a body vibro-acoustic model. The array also provides a high resolution turbulence measurement tool, suitable for validation of computation fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations for wind noise. The authors' report on the wavenumber-frequency structure of flow turbulence measured in different flow regions on a side glass and the corresponding contributions to interior wind noise.