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To significantly increase fuel efficiency while keeping power and performance of its signature S models, AUDI developed a new 4.0 TFSI engine with Cylinder on Demand technology and introduced it with its new S6, S7 and S8 models. To manage upcoming NVH issues due to this new technology and keep the intended sporty V8 note of the engine under all operating conditions, a broad range of new and advanced technologies was introduced with these vehicles. This paper focusses on the Active Noise Control system and its development. It describes the ANC system from a control theory perspective in addition to the acoustical perspective. Special features of the system include the availability of multiple tunings (4/8 cylinder mode) to support the specific overall sound character and the fast switching process as switching between different cylinder configurations might be as fast as 300 ms. In addition, the system also includes specific features that allow an advanced audio system diagnosis.

1. The present work introduces an approach for the analysis of the noise propagation behavior of mechatronic brake systems in modern passenger vehicles. While on the one hand, the number of features realized through the mechatronic brake system is strongly increasing; on the other hand, a continuous reduction of the overall vehicle interior noise level can be observed. This leads to an increase of interfering noise phenomena in the vehicle interior that customers might perceive as insufficient product quality. Therefore, noise elimination always plays an important role in vehicle development. The mechatronic brake system induces interfering noise that is transferred into the vehicle interior, differing from vehicle to vehicle and maneuver to maneuver. Supposedly, a wide frequency range, numerous components, and various branched transfer paths in the physical domains of airborne, structure-borne, and fluid-borne sound are involved in the noise propagation.

To assure high comfort for vehicle passengers, the interior noise has to be designed to be low in volume as well as in a pleasant way. Vehicle’s HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) noise becomes increasingly audible when the main sound sources are acoustically optimized. Thus, the Sound Quality of HVAC noise needs to be evaluated early in the development process. For assessing the Sound Quality of HVAC noise, suitable evaluation criteria as well as the knowledge of the acoustics of the new HVAC system are required. Suitable evaluation criteria were identified using listening tests. In a second step HVAC noise was investigated in different environments: HVAC as a component, HVAC as a system (including air ducts and vents) and HVAC system integrated in a simplified car model. The model was designed acoustically similar to a series vehicle. Thus, the size as well as the interior paneling of a series vehicle was approximated by using sound-absorbing and -reflecting material.

The acoustic trim components play an essential role in NVH behavior by reducing both the structure borne and airborne noise transmission while participating to the absorption inside the car. Over the past years, the interest for numerical solutions to predict the noise transmission through trim packages has grown, leading to the development of dedicated CAE tools. The incrementally restrictive weight and space constraints force today CAE engineers to seek for optimized trim package solution. This paper presents a two-steps process which aims to reduce the structure borne road noise due to floor panel using a coupled simulation with MSC NASTRAN and Actran. The embossment of the supporting steel structure, the material properties of porous layers and the thickness of visco-elastic patches are the design variables of the optimization process.

With battery electric vehicles (BEV), due to the absence of the combustion process, the rolling noise comes even more into play. The BEV technology also leads to different concepts of how to mount the electric engine in the car. Commonly, also applied with the Audi e-tron, the rear engine is mounted on a subframe, which again is connected to the body structure. This concept leads to a better insulation in the high frequency range, yet it bears some problems in designing the mounts for ride comfort (up to 20Hz) or body boom (up to 70Hz). Commonly engine mounts are laid-out based on driving dynamics and driving comfort (up to 20Hz). The current paper presents a new method to find an optimal mount design (concerning the stiffness) in order to reduce the dynamic chassis forces which are transferred to the body (>20Hz). This directly comes along with a reduction of the sound pressure level for the ‘body boom’ phenomena.

Electrified vehicles are particularly quiet, especially at low speeds due to the absence of combustion noises. This is why there are laws worldwide for artificial driving sounds to warn pedestrians. These sounds are generated using a so-called Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System (AVAS) which must maintain certain minimum sound pressure levels in specific frequency ranges at low speeds. The creation of the sound currently involves an iterative and sometimes time-consuming process that combines composing the sound on a computer with measuring the levels with a car on an outside noise test track. This continues until both the legal requirements and the subjective demands of vehicle manufacturers are met. To optimize this process and reduce the measurement effort on the outside noise test track, the goal is to replace the measurement with a simulation for a significant portion of the development.

The statistical energy analysis (SEA) is widely used to support the development of the sound package of cars. This paper will present the preparation of a model designed to investigate the sound package of the new Audi A3 and associated correlation against measurements. Special care was given during the creation of the model on the representation of the structure to enable the analysis of structure borne energy flow on top of the classical airborne analysis usually done with SEA. The sound package was also detailed in the model to allow further optimization and analysis of its performance. Two real life load cases will be presented to validate the model with measurements. First, the dominating powertrain and a second load case with dominating rolling noise. An analysis of the contribution of the different source components and a way to diagnose the weak paths of the vehicle will be presented. The focus of this investigation is the application of optimally adjusted treatment.