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Due to modern trends in the automotive industry, such as vehicle electrification, light-weighting, reduced NVH (Noise, Vibration and Harshness) packaging space, etc., it is desirable to have a low profile and light-weight acoustic material with multi-functionality. If one single layer of a thin acoustic material can provide comparable absorption and transmission loss to a multilayer treatment, it will benefit the industry by saving weight, packaging space and system cost. Acoustic absorption and sound transmission loss performance of a new dissipative material at reduced weight and thickness is introduced in this paper. The acoustic performance of the material was evaluated by using random incidence absorption and transmission loss as well as in-vehicle experiment. Further potential applications for this material have been identified using the Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) method with panel leakage considered.

In recent years, interest in microperforated panels (MPPs) has been growing in the automotive industry and elsewhere. Acoustic performance prediction is an important step toward understanding and designing MPPs. This paper outlines a start-to-finish procedure to predict the transfer impedance of a particular MPP based on its hole geometry and to further use this information in a simple plane wave application. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach was used to calculate the impedance of the MPP and the results compared to impedance tube and flow resistance measurements. The transfer impedance results were then used to create a computationally efficient acoustic finite element (FE) model. The results of the acoustic FE model were also compared to impedance tube measurements.

In this study, we investigated two aspects of a multi-layer, lightweight damping treatment. The first aspect studied was an equivalent material property estimate for a simplified finite element (FE) model. The simplified model is needed for computational efficiency, i.e. so that Tier 1 and OEM users can represent this complex, multi-layer treatment as a single, isotropic solid layer plus an aluminum constraining layer. Therefore, the use of this simplified FE model allows the multilayer treatment to be included in large body-in-white structural models. An equivalent material property was identified by first representing three unique layers (two adhesive layers plus a connecting standoff layer) by a single row of isotropic solid elements, then an optimization tool was used to determine the “best fit” for two properties including Young’s modulus and material loss factor.

The aerospace industry has employed sandwich composite panels (stiff skins and lightweight cores) for over fifty years. It is a very efficient structure for rigidity per unit weight. For the automobile industry, we have developed novel thermoplastic composite panels that may be heated and shaped by compression molding or thermoforming with cycle times commensurate with automotive manufacturing line build rates. These panels are also readily recycled at the end of their service life. As vehicles become lighter to meet carbon dioxide emission targets, it becomes more challenging to maintain the same level of quietness in the vehicle interior. Panels with interconnected honeycomb cells and perforations in one skin have been developed to absorb specific noise frequencies. The absorption results from a combination and interaction of Helmholtz and quarter wave resonators.