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A series of tests have been performed on a production vehicle to determine the characteristics of the external turbulent flow field in wind tunnel and road conditions. Empirical formulas are developed to use the measured data as source levels for a Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) model of the vehicle structural and acoustical responses. Exterior turbulent flow and acoustical subsystems are used to receive power from the source excitations. This allows for both the magnitudes and wavelengths of the exterior excitations to be taken into account - a necessary condition for consistently accurate results. Comparisons of measured and calculated interior sound levels show good correlation.

A four element wind noise transducer has been designed with surface mounted electret microphones in an array pattern which allows for the separate determination of the acoustic and turbulent pressures in wind noise. Three closely spaced transducers, defining an x-y coordinate system, are positioned to determine the velocity and direction of the turbulent flow. A fourth transducer is positioned at a greater distance such that the correlation of the turbulent flow will be diminished while the correlation of the acoustic pressure remains due to its longer wavelength. By averaging the cross-spectral densities of the pressure signals over time, the two contributors to wind noise can be differentiated. In addition, a wireless interface has been designed to minimize the flow disturbance of the transducer array.

The SEA model of wind noise requires the quantification of both the acoustic as well as the turbulent flow contributions to the exterior pressure. The acoustic pressure is difficult to measure because it is usually much lower in amplitude than the turbulent pressure. However, the coupling of the acoustic pressure to the surface vibration is usually much stronger than the turbulent pressure, especially in the acoustic coincidence frequency range. The coupling is determined by the spatial matching between the pressure and the vibration which can be described by the wavenumber spectra. This paper uses measured vibration modes of a vehicle window to determine the coupling to both acoustic and turbulent pressure fields and compares these to the results from an SEA model. The interior acoustic intensity radiating from the window during road tests is also used to validate the results.

The transmission of turbulent flow pressures through panels to the interior noise depends on the spatial matching of the pressure and vibration fields. Since the exterior pressure field on a moving vehicle includes both turbulent pressure and acoustic pressure, both need to be factored into a noise transmission loss calculation. However, these two exterior pressure fields have very different spatial patterns. This is further complicated when the exterior flow is separated from the surface due to an obstruction. This study uses wind tunnel and road tests to measure and model the wind noise transmission loss through the side glass of a vehicle. The results are seen to be very different from the traditional sound transmission loss curves for an acoustic pressure source.

Wind noise is becoming a higher priority in the automotive industry. Several past studies investigated whether Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) can be utilized to predict wind noise. Because wind noise analysis requires both radiation and transmission modeling in a wide frequency band, turbulent-structure-acoustic-coupled-SEA is being used. Past research investigated coupled-SEA’s benefit, but the model is usually simplified to enable easier consideration on the input side. However, the vehicle is composed of multiple interior parts and possible interior countermeasure consideration is needed. To enable this, at first, a more detailed coupled-SEA model is built from the acoustic-SEA model which has a larger number of degrees of freedom for the interior side. Then, the model is modified to account for sound radiation effects induced by turbulent and acoustic pressure.