Search Results

This research aims to develop an inverse control method capable of adaptively simulating dynamic models of car subsystems in the rig-test condition. Accurate simulation of the actual vibration conditions is one of the most crucial factors in realizing reliable rig-test platforms. However, most typical rig tests are conducted under simple random or harmonic sweep conditions. Moreover, the conventional test methods are hard to directly adapt to the actual vibration conditions when switching the dynamic characteristics of the subsystem in the rig test. In the present work, we developed an inverse controller to adaptively control the vibration exciter referring to the target vibration signal. An adaptive LMS filter, employed for the control algorithm, updated the filter weights in real time by referring to the target and the measured acceleration signals.

As the original engine sound is usually not enough to satisfy the driver’s desire for a sporty and fascinating sound, Active Noise Control (ANC) and Active Sound Design (ASD) have been great technologies in automobiles for a long time. However, these technologies which enhance the sound of vehicles using loud speakers or electromagnetic actuators etc. lead to the increase of cost and weight due to the use of external amplifiers or actuators. This paper presents a new technology for generating a target sound by the active control of a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) of a mass-production steering system. The existing steering hardware or motor is not changed, but only additional software is added. Firstly, an algorithm of this technology, called Active Sound Generation (ASG), is introduced which is compiled and included in the ECU target code. Then the high frequency noise issue and its countermeasures are presented.

The sliding door’s movement is 3-dimensional unlike the conventional door. So the electric power and signal are exchanged via the long ‘Power Cable’. It has a quite complex structure in order to be suitable to connect the vehicle’s body and the sliding door even during it’s moving. As the result, it is more expensive than conventional door’s one and the quality could not be guaranteed easily. In this paper, I have developed new technology which could transfer electric power by ‘wireless transfer’ in order to resolve the problem from using ‘Power cable’. I would propose the proper structure to transfer the electric power at any position of the sliding door without any physical connection. To transfer the electric power which drives the window regulator and the actuators in door, I have applied the ‘inductive coupling’ system.

Due to improvements in vehicle powertrain performance, friction material fade performance is becoming an important topic. For this reason, needs for studies to improve thermal characteristics of the brake system is increasing. Methods for improving the fade characteristics have several ways to improve the thermal characteristic of friction materials and increase disc capacity. However, increasing disc capacity(size) have some risk of weight and cost rise, and friction factor improvements in friction material tend to cause other problems, such as increasing squeal wire brush noise and increasing metal pick up on disc surface. Therefore, a slot disc study is needed to overcome the problems discussed previously. Currently, there is few research history for slot disc related to fade and metal pickup improvements.

The sliding surface of the brake friction material is not uniform but composed of random contact plateaus with a broad pressure distribution, which are known to closely related to the triggering mechanism of friction induced noise and vibrations. The non-uniform contact plateaus are attributed to the various ingredients in the friction material with a broad range of physical properties and morphology and the size and stiffness of the plateau play crucial roles in determining the friction instability. The incorporation of friction surface inhomogeneity is, therefore, crucial and has to be counted to improve the accuracy of the numerical calculation to simulate brake noise. In this study, the heterogeneous nature of the friction material surface was employed in the simulation to improve the correlation between numerical simulations and experimental results.

This paper presents the design of an additional structure based on acoustic metamaterial (AMM) for the reduction of vibro-acoustic transfer function of a car body panel. As vehicles are lighter and those engine forces are bigger recently, it has become more difficult to reduce the vibration and noise transfer through body panels by using just conventional NVH countermeasures. In this research, a new approach based on AMM is tried to reduce the vibration and noise transfer of a firewall panel. First, a unit cell structure based on the locally resonant metamaterial is devised and the unit cell’s design variables are studied to increase the wave attenuation in the stop band of a dispersion curve, where the Floquet-Bloch theorem is used to estimate the dispersion curve of a two-dimensional periodic structure. Also, the vibration transfer and the vibro-acoustic transfer are predicted in a FE model of meta-plate which is composed of a periodic system of the devised unit cell.

The squeak noise generated during the moving of the door glass has a influence on the performance of vehicles felt by the consumer. In order to improve the noise, it is necessary to understand the principle of a friction vibration. In this paper, it is confirmed that the principle on the waist belt is most closely related to stick-slip and sprag-slip among various vibration characteristics. Stick-slip is expressed by energy accumulation and divergence due to difference in static and dynamic friction coefficient. Sprag-slip define instability of geometric structure due to angle of lips on the belt. In this paper, the physical model and the energy equation are established for the above two phenomena. Stick-slip can be solved by decreasing the difference of the static and dynamic friction coefficient. Sprag-slip is caused by the ratio of compressive and shear stiffness of the lips. The belt uses flocking to ensure durability, not coating.

Brake grinding noise is caused by the friction of the disc and pads. The friction generates vibration and it transmits to the body via the chassis system. We called it structure-borne noise. To improve the noise in the vehicle development, the aspects of chassis or body's countermeasure occurs many problems, cost and time. In this reason many brake companies try to make solution with brake system, like brake pad materials or disc surface condition. However the countermeasures of excitation systems also have a lot of risk. It could be occurred side-effects of braking performance, and need to re-verify brake noise like Creep-groan, Groan, Squeal, Judder and so on. For this reason, it is essential to make a robust chassis system in the initial development stage of the vehicle for the most desirable grinding noise-resistant vehicle. This paper is about rear brake grind noise path analysis and countermeasure of chassis system. There are two steps to analysis.

Voice Recognition (VR) systems have become an integral part of the infotainment systems in the current automotive industry. However, its recognition rate is impacted by external factors such as vehicle cabin noise, road noise, and internal factors which are a function of the voice engine in the system itself. This paper analyzes the VR performance under the effect of two external factors, vehicle cabin noise and the speakers’ speech patterns based on gender. It also compares performance of mid-level sedans from different manufacturers.

Recently the interior sound is actively generated by the active sound design (ASD) device in a passenger car. Therefore, the objective evaluation method for the sound quality of actively designed sounds is required. In previous research, the sound quality of interior sound has been presented with powerful and pleasant for the existing passenger car. This paper presents a novel approach method for the objective evaluation of powerfulness and pleasantness of actively designed interior sound. The powerfulness has been evaluated based on the degreed of modulation and a quantity of low frequency booming of the sound in the paper. On the other hand, the pleasantness is evaluated based on the slope ratio of harmonic orders per octave in frequency domain. These evaluation methods are successfully applied to the objective evaluation of luxury passenger car.

Squeak and rattle (S&R) noises are undesirable noises caused by friction-induced vibration or impact between surfaces. While several computer programs have been developed to automatically detect and rate S&R events over the years, no reported work has been found that can detect squeak and rattle noises and distinguish them. Because the causes of squeak noises and rattle noises are different, knowing if it is a squeak noise or rattle noise will be very helpful for automotive engineers to choose an appropriate measure to solve the problem. The authors have developed a new algorithm to differentiate squeak noises and rattle noises, and added it to the S&R detection algorithm they had developed previously. The new algorithm utilizes a combination of sound quality metrics, specifically sharpness, roughness, and fluctuation strength.

Squeak and rattle (S&R) problems in body structure and trim parts have become serious issues for automakers because of their influence on the initial quality perception of consumers. In this study, various CAE and experimental methods developed by Hyundai Motors for squeak and rattle analysis of door systems are reported. Friction-induced vibration and noise generation mechanisms of a door system are studied by an intelligent combination of experimental and numerical methods. It is shown that the effect of degradation of plastics used in door trims can be estimated by a numerical model using the properties obtained experimentally. Effects of changes in material properties such as Young's modulus and loss factor due to the material degradation as well as statistical variations are predicted for several door system configurations. As a new concept, the rattle and squeak index is proposed, which can be used to guide the design.

Creep groan noise occurs in a just moving vehicle by the simultaneous application of torque to the wheel and the gradual release of brake pressure in-vehicle. It is the low frequency noise giving the driver a very uncomfortable feeling. It is caused by the stick-sleep phenomenon at the lining and disc interface. Recently, the field claim of low frequency creep groan has increased. There are a lot of efforts to improve creep groan noise by means of modification of lining material. In this paper, Transfer path of creep groan noise was analyzed through ODS and TPA. Additionally the correlation between Source (Brake torque variation, Brake vibration) and Creep Groan Sound level was discussed. Finally countermeasure to Creep Groan noise was suggested.

Rust accumulated on disc surfaces causes brake judder and grind noise. This paper deals with grind noise(wire brush brake noise) in vehicles which is a low frequency vibration and broadband noise problem at 100∼1kHz that appears in low vehicle speed. Recently, the customer complaints have increased for grind and creep groan noise more than squeal noise. Low frequency brake noise is a combined effect of brake and suspension systems working with each other. The noise transfer path is also important. Experimental results are confirmed through ODS, Modal, TPA and 3D acoustic camera for noise transmission path. Finally, reduction methods of grind noise are presented.

A new approach to achieve better customer perception of overall vehicle quietness is the sound balance improvement of vehicle interior sound during driving. Interior sound is classified into 3 primary sound source shares such as engine sound relative to revolution speed, tire road noise and wind noise relative to vehicle speed. Each interior sound shares are classified using the synchronous time-domain averaging method. The sound related to revolution order of engine and auxiliaries is considered as engine sound share, tire road noise and wind noise shares are extracted by multiple coherent output power analysis. Sound balance analysis focuses on improving the relative difference in interior sound share level between the 3 primary sound sources. Virtual sound simulator which is able to represent various driving conditions and able to adjust imaginary sound share is built for several vehicles in same compact segment.

It is common knowledge that body structure is an important factor of road noise performance. Thus, a high stiffness of body system is required, and determining their optimized stiffness and structure is necessary. Therefore, a method for improving body stiffness and validating the relationship between stiffness and road noise through CAE and experimental trials was tested. Furthermore, a guideline for optimizing body structure for road noise performance was suggested.

In order to achieve the proper automobile interior sound, the tailpipe noise of the exhaust system must be considered as a main contributor. This paper describes a study of the achievement of dynamic sound quality through exhaust system design. Firstly, we determined the vehicle's interior sound quality and established a target sound using a subjective assessment of 10 benchmark vehicles. The exhaust noise target is determined by means of transfer path analysis focusing on the noise source and how it's impacted by the muffler design. The exhaust system is commonly modeled as a combination of source strength and impedance. We obtained the source character by the wave decomposition method using two microphones and six loads ultimately leading to an optimized design of the inner muffler structure. Based on this study, we achieved dynamic interior sound and improved exhaust system performance.

Fluctuation in the sound pressure level of the interior noise of an on-road vehicle is always caused by unpredictable factors such as wind gusts, traffic, roadside obstacles, and changing drive-by-drive conditions, and is hence, not reproducible in nature. Since the human brain is known to be more sensitive to noise that is amplitude-modulated than noise at a steady level [1], it is important to evaluate and improve the NVH performance of a vehicle in terms of the fluctuating interior noise likely to be experienced by drivers or users. To this end, an evaluation system was developed as part of this study, the details of which are presented in this paper. The system is composed of hardware for database storage and replay of sounds, and software for synthesizing the noise signals. For given wind tunnel test results, the evaluation system yields a wind noise model that can synthesize wind noise signals for any wind scenario.

This paper describes a systematic approach to the development of a luxurious driving sound. In the first step, the luxurious sound is conceptualized through jury test, factor analysis and regression analysis. From the results, the main factors and the correlation equation for the luxurious sound are extracted. Also, customer's preference for the luxurious sound is investigated from the customer clinic. In the second step, three core axes and the detailed indices for luxurious sound are defined and quantified. These core axes are a dynamic sound character, a sound balance and a sound harmony. These core axes are also composed of detailed indices and quantified by guide lines. In the third step, each contribution of the sub-systems for sound quality is identified and the target values and methods for implementing the luxurious sound are suggested. In this process, noise path analysis and the customer's preference in each region are considered.

Light weighting is a critical objective in the automotive industry to improve fuel efficiency. But when redesigning parts for light weight, by changing from metal to plastic, the resulting design gives NVH issues due to differences in part mass and material stiffness. Many parts were not converted from metal to plastic because of NVH issues that could not be solved. Many engine parts such as cylinder head cover, air intake manifold, oil pan and etc. previously made of metal have since long been replaced with plastic. But timing chain cover has not been replaced because of the aforementioned issue. Sealing performance due to the dynamic characteristics of the application is another challenging factor. In this paper, the key aspects of the plastic timing chain cover as well as its advantage are presented.