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Noise concerns regarding snowmobiles have increased in the recent past. Current standards, such as SAE J192 are used as guidelines for government agencies and manufacturers to regulate noise emissions for all manufactured snowmobiles. Unfortunately, the test standards available today produce results with variability that is much higher than desired. The most significant contributor to the variation in noise measurements is the test surface. The test surfaces can either be snow or grass and affects the measurement in two very distinct ways: sound propagation from the source to the receiver and the operational behavior of the snowmobile. Data is presented for a known sound pressure speaker source and different snowmobiles on various test days and test surfaces. Relationships are shown between the behavior of the sound propagation and track interaction to the ground with the pass-by noise measurements.

The classical methods of measuring acoustic absorption coefficient using an impedance tube and a reverberation chamber are well established [1, 2]. However, these methods are not suitable for in-situ applications. The two in-situ methods; single channel microphone (P- probe) and dual channel acoustic pressure and particle velocity (Pu-probe) methods based on measurement of impulse response functions of the material surface under test, provide considerable advantage in data acquisition, signal processing, ease and mobility of measurement setup. This paper evaluates the measurement techniques of these two in-situ methods and provides results of acoustic absorption coefficient of a commercial artificial Astroturf, a Dow quash material, and a grass surface.

Performing acoustic measurements on or near engines, transmissions, as well as in other circumstances where the environment is hazardous and harsh for microphones requires special precautions. Fluids inevitably leak, and the possibility of transducer damage can be very high without proper protection. Properly protecting microphones during testing allows for consistent data quality in these hazardous and difficult environments. While this paper will present the use of a 5 mil Nitrile cover which protects against many fluids within the scope of automotive testing, including water, hydrocarbons, and alcohols, as well as having good heat resistance and high strength, the concepts developed are applicable to other types of microphone protective mechanisms. Acoustic sensitivity was measured and used to calculate the change of the microphone's response after the treatment is applied, as well as after being exposed to various contaminants.