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The finite element method (FEM) is effective for analyzing brake squeal phenomena. Although FEM analysis can be used to easily obtain squeal frequencies and complex vibration modes, it is difficult to identify how to modify brake structure design or contact conditions between components. Therefore, this study deals with a practical design method using sensitivity analysis to reduce brake squeal, which is capable of optimizing both the structure of components and contact conditions. A series of analysis processes that consist of modal reduction, complex eigenvalue analysis, sensitivity analysis and optimization analysis is shown and some application results are described using disk brake systems.

Full-foam-type seat cushion for vehicle is made of such elements as panel, foam pad, and surface seat and each element individually effects on dynamic vibration comfort performance during riding. The most important requirement is to reduce resonance magnification of seat close to 6 Hz, which is the natural frequency of the human body''s internal organs. Conventionally, the prediction of the resonance frequency characteristics of the seat cushion is seldom done by calculation at design stage before evaluation of prototype test. This paper reports that it becomes possible to predict vibration property of seat cushion at design stage by solving vibration equation, which is obtained by replacing seat cushion structure with vibration system model having spring element and damping element equivalent to designed seat cushion and by making graph of resonance frequency characteristics using calculation program provided in this paper.

A technique has been developed that uses unsteady flow simulation to evaluate mirror vibration quantitatively at the drawing stage. Studies made in actual driving tests of the contributions of different inputs to mirror vibration have confirmed that the contribution of fluid force is large, so a visualization of the structure of the external rearview mirror wake was done using PIV. The results made it clear that the vibration imparted to the mirror surface by air flow excites the natural vibration mode of the mirror surface, thereby causing the mirror to vibrate. Mirror vibration performance was evaluated by means of unsteady flow simulation using the moment PSD as a substitute characteristic. (The moment PSD was obtained by a frequency analysis of the changes over time in the moment generated in the mirror surface by the fluid force.) The results obtained through CFD show a high degree of correlation with those obtained in actual driving tests.

First Order Analysis (FOA) is useful for designing subunits in the mid-frequency range, as the layout and mounting positions can easily be decided at the conceptual design phase. In order to reduce vibration, we propose FOA for Noise and Vibration (NV) with the following characteristics. First, a dynamic beam element is formulated analytically using Euler's beam theory [1], so that a long uniform beam can express one element with high-order vibration. Second, power flow between potential energy and kinetic energy can be expressed as post-processing, so we can examine how to change or cut off the vibration energy path. In this paper, the above analysis is applied to a front subframe for the conceptual design of an automotive body structure.

Engine running tests and excitation tests were performed to reveal the vibration behavior in a turbocharger-exhaust system related to the turbocharger's operating sound. The operating sound was caused by the resonant vibration excited by the unbalanced inertia force of the rotor. The turbocharger-exhaust system had six resonant frequencies in the operating speed range of the rotor. At resonant speeds, the whole turbocharger was translating or rotating due to bending and torsional deflection of the exhaust manifold. Based on the test results, the vibration behavior could be well simulated by a rigid body-spring model with six degree of freedom. Furthermore, the model was used to analyze the relation between the stiffness of the exhaust manifold and the vibration level. Increasing the stiffness of the exhaust manifold was effective in sufficiently reducing the vibration and sound.

transient vibrations caused by a sudden change in the road surface under steady-state random vibration subject the human body to unpleasant sensations. However, it is very difficult to examine each part of the seat structure and physical properties because the measurement position of acceleration sensors with the conventional evaluation method are limited to the hipbone on the seat cushion and lumbar on the seat back. In this paper, in order to evaluate three kinds of driver seats having different structures and physical properties, we dynamically measured body pressure distribution, which are mainly made with static measurements, on a pavement inducing transient vibrations. We analyzed each part of measurement data by means of a new human engineering index, which is body pressure change rate over time. We next investigated the correlation between the analyzed data and the subjective evaluation, and found the mechanism causing unpleasant sensations during transient vibrations.