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Vehicle cabin comfort emphasizes a specific image of a brand and its product quality. Low frequency powertrain induced noise and vibration levels are a major contributor affecting comfort inside passenger cabin. Thus, using hydraulic mount is a natural choice. Introduction of lighter body panels coupled with cost effective hydraulic mounts has resulted in some additional noises on rough road surfaces which are challenging to identify during design phase. This paper presents a novel approach to identify two such noises i.e. Cavitation noise and Mount membrane hitting noise based on component level testing which are validated at vehicle experimentally. These noises are encountered at 20~30kmph on undulated road surfaces. Sound quality aspect of such noises is also studied to evaluate the solution effectiveness.

In urban driving conditions, the steering vibration plays a major role for a customer, spending a significant amount of time behind the steering wheel. Considering the urban drive at Indian roads, 1000~1600rpm band becomes primary area of concern. In this paper, study has been conducted to define the target areas as well as its achievement in reference to given driving pattern on a front wheel powered passenger car for steering vibration. During the concept stage of vehicle development, a target characteristic of steering wheel vibration was defined based on the competitor model benchmarking and prior development experience. A correlated CAE model was prepared to evaluate the modification prior to prototype building and verification. Vibration level in all 3 degrees of freedom at the steering wheel location was measured in the initial vehicle prototypes and target areas of improvement are identified.

With the development of automobile industry, customer awareness about NVH (Noise, Vibration and Harshness) levels in passenger vehicles and demands for improving the riding comfort has increased. This has prompted automobile OEMs to address these parameters in design stage by investing resources in NVH research and development for all components. Better NVH of Radiator Fan Module (RFM) is one of the parameters which contributes to cabin comfort. The basic objective of RFM is to meet engine heat rejection requirements with optimized heat transfer and air flow while maintaining NVH within acceptable levels. The rotating fan (generally driven by an electric motor), if not balanced properly, can be a major source of vibration in the RFM. The vibration generated thus, can be felt by customer through the vehicle body.

In the present automobile market, customers have put demand for smaller cars with better ride and comfort. For small diesel engine cars, where the comfort is known to be inferior to its gasoline siblings, the effect of engine excitation and road inputs has posed the problem of seat back vibrations. Low frequency vibrations are observed at irregular road inputs, which directly get transferred to the human body through the seat back resulting in fatigue and discomfort. This paper describes the use of testing and CAE in reducing the seat back vibrations. First step of the study includes the frequency response functions (FRF) of the seat frame and road data. The CAE model is validated with the test data and the problem areas are identified. The countermeasure design modifications in the seat frame structure are analyzed using CAE (Normal Mode Analysis). The feasible countermeasure action is road tested and clearly shows a reduction in the vibration levels coming on the seat back.

Powertrain Control development has gone through many changes in terms of process, tools and practice at all OEM's across the geography. This is mainly driven by increased number of powertrain components for control, shorter development schedules, cost control, and the need to realize the potential of electronic control to increase the performance, efficiency, safety and comfort. With the significant advancement in Powertrain Controls and additions of electronic functions, it has become imperative to automate the controller development process in the V-cycle to reduce the time and make the process more efficient while detecting any logic failures upfront at the early stage of the development cycle. Traditional practices and tools of defining the controls cannot meet new requirements. Model Based Design (MBD) approach is a promising solution to meet the critical needs of powertrain control engineering to define the control logic and validate.

Vehicles which are sold and put into service in a country have to meet the regulations and standards of that country. Every country has a separate regulation and approval procedure which requires expensive design modifications, additional tests and duplicating approvals. Thus, there is the need to harmonize the different national technical requirements for vehicles and form a unique international regulation. With this rationale, the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE/WP29) has brought governments and automobile manufacturers together to work on a new harmonized test cycle and procedure which is to be adopted around the world. This lead to the development of Worldwide Harmonized Light Duty Test Procedures (WLTP) and Cycles (WLTC). The test procedure is divided into 3 cycles, depending on a power to mass ratio of the tested vehicle.

Quieter cabins are indispensable in today’s evolving automobile industry. The effective isolation of vehicle noise and vibrations are essential to achieve the above. Since, low frequency powertrain induced NVH has been one of the major contributors affecting noise and vibration levels inside the passenger cabin. Thus, use of hydraulic mounts is a natural choice for all major OEMs. The objective of this study is to optimize the design of the hydraulic mount de-coupler unit, to reduce the abnormal noise felt inside the cabin. This condition was observed when the vehicle was driven at 20~30 km/h over undulated road surface, found very often in Indian drive conditions. Due to lack of accuracy and repeatability errors during NVH data acquisition in actual driving condition, the above road profile was captured and subsequently simulated in an acoustically treated BSR (Buzz, Squeak and Rattle) four poster simulator.

Gear noise and vibration in automobile transmissions is a phenomenon of great concern. Noise generated at the gearbox, due to gear meshing, also known as gear whine, gets transferred from the engine cabin to the passenger cabin via various transfer paths and is perceived as air borne noise to the passengers in the vehicle. This noise due to its tonal nature can be very uncomfortable to the passengers. Optimizing micro-geometry of a gear pair can help in improving the stress distribution on tooth flank and reducing the sound level of the tonal noise generated during the running of the gearbox when that gear pair is engaged. This technical paper contains the study of variation in noise level in passenger cabin and contact on tooth flank with change in micro-geometry parameters (involute slope and lead slope) of a particular gear pair. Further scope of study has been discussed at the end of the paper.