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From an acoustical point of view, the integration of seatbelt retractors in a vehicle is a real challenge that has to be met early in the vehicle development process. The buzz and rattle noise of seat belt retractors is a weak yet disturbing interior noise. Street irregularities excite the wheels and this excitation is transferred via the car body to the mounting location of the retractor. Ultimately, the inertia sensor of the locking mechanism is also excited. This excitation can be amplified by structural resonances and generate a characteristic impact noise. The objective of this paper is to describe a simulation method for an early development phase that predicts the noise-relevant low frequency local modes and consequently the contact of the retractor with the mounting panel of the car body via the finite element method.

Pneumatic valves are widely used in heavy commercial vehicles’ air braking systems. These valves are mainly used in the braking system layout to maintain the vehicle stability during dynamic conditions. Rubber components are inevitable in valves as a sealing element, and it is very difficult to predict the behavior due to its nonlinear nature. Basically, this valve efficiency is defined in terms of performance and response characteristics. These characteristics are determined in the concept stage itself using 1D simulation software. AMESim software has a variety of elements to use in a unique way for performance and response behavior prediction. For pneumatic valves, 1D analysis is an effective method and it gives good correlation with actual test results. During the modelling of pneumatic valves, some of the contacts between rubber and metals are controlled by various parameters such as damping, contact stiffness and desired phase angle.