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For most car manufacturers, wind noise from the greenhouse region has become the dominant high frequency noise contributor at highway speeds. Addressing this wind noise issue using experimental procedures involves high cost prototypes, expensive wind tunnel sessions, and potentially late design changes. To reduce the associated costs as well as development times, there is strong motivation for the use of a reliable numerical prediction capability early in the vehicle design process. Previously, a computational approach that couples an unsteady computational fluid dynamics solver (based on a Lattice Boltzmann method) to a Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) solver had been validated for predicting the noise contribution from the side mirrors. This paper presents the use of this computational approach to predict the vehicle interior noise from the windshield wipers, so that different wiper placement options can be evaluated early in the design process before the surface is frozen.

For the automotive industry, the quality and level of the wind noise contribution has a growing importance and therefore should be addressed as early as possible in the development process. Each component of the vehicle is designed to meet its individual noise target to ensure the wind noise passenger comfort level inside the vehicle is met. Sunroof broadband noise is generated by the turbulent flow developed over the roof opening. A strong shear layer and vortices impacting on the trailing edge of the sunroof are typical mechanisms related to the noise production. Sunroof designs are tested to meet broadband noise targets. Experimentally testing designs and making changes to meet these design targets typically involves high cost prototypes, expensive wind tunnel sessions and potentially late design changes.

Physical testing of a vehicle wading through water is performed to gauge its capability to traverse through shallow to deep levels of water, wherein various vehicle performance parameters are observed, recorded and analysed. Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has instigated and established a comprehensive CAE test procedure for assessing the same, which makes use of overset mesh (in a CFD environment) for a non-traditional approach to vehicle motion. The paper presents investigations made into the established wading physics, in order to optimise the splashing and water jet modelling. Large Scale Interface model was implemented instead of the previously standardised VOF-VOF fluid phase interaction model, and a comparison is made between the two. The implemented wheel rotation approach was scrutinised as well and appropriate inferences are drawn.

Vehicle wind noise is becoming increasingly important to customer satisfaction. Early wind noise assessment is critical to get things right during the early design phase. In this paper, SEA modeling technique is used to predict vehicle interior noise caused by the exterior turbulence. Measured surface turbulence pressures over vehicle greenhouse panels are applied as wind noise load. SEA representation of wind noise load case is investigated. It has been found that current SEA wind noise load case over-estimates at frequencies below window glass coincident frequency. A new concept of noise source pole index is introduced and a new wind noise load coupling has been developed. Comparison with vehicle wind tunnel measurements shows that the proposed load case significantly improved prediction accuracy.

Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) is the standard analytical tool for predicting vehicle acoustic and vibration responses at high frequencies. SEA is commonly used to obtain the interior Sound Pressure Level (SPL) due to each individual noise or vibration source and to determine the contribution to the interior noise through each dominant transfer path. This supports cascading vehicle noise and vibration targets and early evaluation of the vehicle design to effectively meet NVH targets with optimized cost and weight. A common misconception is that SEA is only capable of predicting a general average interior SPL for the entire vehicle cabin and that the differences between different locations such as driver's ear, rear passenger's ear, lower interior points, etc., in the vehicle cannot be analytically determined by an SEA model.

The ability to assess noise transmitted through seals to cabin interiors early in the design process is very important for automotive manufacturers. When a seal design is inadequate, the noise transmitted can dominate the interior noise, making the wind noise performance of the vehicle unacceptable. This can cause launch delays, increasing costs and risking loss of sales. Designing seals using conventional experimental processes is challenging, since the location and strength of flow noise sources are not known when the seal design is planned. Making changes to the seal system after the tooling stage is expensive for manufacturers as tooling and redesign costs can be considerable. Deliberate overdesign by adding multiple layers of seals in a wide range of locations also can reduce profit by unnecessarily raising part and manufacturing costs.