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Improving fuel efficiency often affects NVH performance. Modifying a vehicle’s design in the latter stages of development to improve NVH performance is often costly. Therefore, to optimize the cost performance, a Multi-Attribute Balancing (MAB) approach should be employed in the early design phases. This paper proposes a solution based on a unified 1D system simulation model across different vehicle performance areas. In the scope of this paper the following attributes are studied: Fuel economy, Booming, Idle, Engine start and Drivability. The challenges to be solved by 1D simulation are the vehicle performance predictions, taking into account the computation time and accuracy. Early phase studies require a large number of scenarios to evaluate multiple possible parameter combinations employing a multi-attribute approach with a systematic tool to ease setup and evaluation according to the determined performance metrics.

The increasing pressure on fuel economy has brought car manufacturers to implement solutions that improve vehicle efficiency, such as downsized engines, cylinder deactivation and advanced torque lock-up strategies. However, these solutions have a major drawback in terms of noise and vibration comfort. Downsized engines and lock-up strategies lead to the use of the engine at lower RPMs, and the reduced number of cylinders generates higher torque irregularities. Since the torque generated by the engine is transferred through flexible elements (clutch, torsional damper, gearbox, transmission, tire), these also impact the energy that is transferred to the vehicle body and perceived by the driver. This phenomenon leads to low frequency behavior, for instance booming noise and vibration. This paper presents a combined test and CAE modelling approach (1D/3D) to reverse engineer a vehicle equipped with a CPVA (centrifugal pendulum vibration absorber).