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Automotive floor carpet serves the purpose of insulating airborne noises like road-tire noise, transmission noise, fuel pump noise etc. Most commonly used automotive floor carpet structure is- molded sound barrier (PE, vinyl etc.) decoupled from the floor pan with an absorber such as felt. With increasing customer expectations and fuel efficiency requirements, the NVH requirements are increasing as well. The only possible way of increasing acoustic performance (Specifically, Sound Transmission Loss, STL) in the mentioned carpet structure is to increase the barrier material. This solution, however, comes at a great weight penalty. Theoretically, increasing the number of decoupled barrier layers greatly enhances the STL performance of an acoustic packaging for same weight. In practice, however, this solution presents problems like- ineffectiveness at lower frequencies, sudden dip in performance at modal frequencies.

In order to meet the challenges of future CAFE regulations & pollutant emission, vehicle fuel efficiency must be improved upon without compromising vehicle performance. Optimization of engine breathing & its impact on vehicle level fuel economy, performance needs balance between conflicting requirements of vehicle Fuel Economy, performance & drivability. In this study a Port Fuel Injection, naturally aspirated small passenger car gasoline engine was selected which was being used in a typical small passenger car. Simulation approach was used to investigate vehicle fuel economy and performance, where-in 1D CFD Engine model was used to investigate and optimize Valve train events (Intake and exhaust valve open and close timings) for best fuel economy. Engine Simulation software is physics based and uses a phenomenological approach 0-D turbulent combustion model to calculate engine performance parameters. Engine simulation model was calibrated within 95% accuracy of test data.

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 recent years, worldwide automotive manufacturers have been continuously working in the research of suitable technical solutions to meet upcoming stringent Real Driving Emission (RDE) and Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFÉ) targets, as set by international regulatory authorities. Many technologies have been already developed, or are currently under study by automotive manufacturer for gasoline engines, to meet legislated targets. In-line with the above objective, there are many technologies available in the market to expand lambda 1 (λ=1) region by reducing fuel enrichment at high load-high revolutions per minute (RPM) by reducing exhaust gas temperature (for catalyst protection) for RDE regulation [1]. Integrated Exhaust Manifold (IEM) is the key technology for the Internal Combustion (IC) for the subjected matter as catalyst durability protection is done by reducing exhaust gas temperatures instead of injecting excess fuel for cooling catalyst.

With the increasing expectation of customer for a quiet and comfortable ride, automobile manufacturers need to continuously work upon to improve automobile powertrain NVH. Today’s customer has become so aware of vehicle related noises that in-tank fuel pump noise is no exception to the checklist of evaluating cabin NVH. In-tank fuel pump, that is responsible for delivering the fuel from fuel storage tank to delivery rail, uses an electric driven motor. The rotating parts such as rotor, etc. produce vibrations that may traverse to tank body & subsequently vehicle body. Since noise is essentially an audible vibration at its root, these structure borne vibrations may be perceived as noise inside passenger cabin. Additionally, the noise may also be produced by fuel flow pulsations if transferred through piping to vehicle body. This paper focuses on various approaches to reduce the fuel pump generated noise heard inside passenger cabin.

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.

With steep increase in fuel prices, there is a strong need for development of better engines with improved performance and emissions. This needs a dedicated effort on engine hardware optimization for lower CO2 levels. Exhaust muffler design is trade-off between noise, backpressure and size/weight. With increase in exhaust muffler volume and simplification of structure there is a corresponding drop observed in exhaust pressures. Study of such a phenomenon would give an insight to benefits achieved based on changes in muffler volumes/structure. This in a way leads to engine improvement. In this paper it has been shown how exhaust muffler characteristics (size and internal construction) impacts engine performance.

Road/Tire noise is an important product quality criterion for passenger cars which are driving customers to decide upon the selection of a vehicle. Reduced engine noise and improvement in road conditions has resulted into more road/tire noise problem as average vehicle speed has gone up. Excitations from road surface travelling through the tire/suspension to vehicle body (structure-borne path) and air-pumping noise caused by tread patterns (air-borne paths) are the main contributor to tire noise issue inside the vehicle cabin [1]. A lot of emphasis is put on the component level design as well as its compliance with vehicle structure to reduce the cabin noise. The objective of this work is to establish a methodology for evaluating structure-borne road/tire noise by evaluating the tire structural behavior and its interface with the vehicle body and its suspension system and identifying the contributing critical paths.

With the increasing competition in the automotive industry, customer experience & satisfaction is at the top of every organization's goals. The customers have evolved & NVH refinement has become the parameter for their decision making in buying a car. The major source of rumble noise in a vehicle is the induced vibrations due to combustion forces in an IC engine. These vibrations are then transferred to the vehicle body through engine mounts. Hence engine mounts play a key role in defining the NVH & the ride performance of any vehicle. However, it is infeasible to validate every mount design through the physical test as it will be both costly & time-consuming. But multiple design iterations can be verified by the CAE approach quite effectively. This paper focuses on the novel CAE approach to evaluate the mount vibrations due to engine dynamics. The process involves preparing a FEA model of the complete Powertrain system.

With the advent of stricter regulation for tail pipe emission and urge to reduce the carbon foot prints, the engine hardware has undergone through evolutionary changes over the years i.e., boosting, low viscosity engine oil, high pressure fuel injection, cooled EGR, friction reduction, downsizing etc. These technological changes have led to the challenge of increase in radiated noise level from the engine (source) due to increased number of auxiliary drives on engine i.e., Turbo charger, HP fuel pump along with faster combustion & harsher operating conditions. The fuel system is one such system which has become most intricate with operating pressure going above 2000bar in the fuel rail and capability of up to 10 fuel injection per combustion. These changes in hardware could result in abnormal noise generation during specific operating conditions which may result in customer annoyance inside vehicle cabin.

Shorter product development cycles, densely packed engine compartments and intensified noise legislation has increased the need for accurate predictions of passenger cars Exhaust system noise at early design stages. The urgent focus on the increasing CO2 emissions and the efficiency of IC-engines as well as upcoming technologies might adversely affect the noise emission from an exhaust system, so it is becoming increasingly important to evaluate the sub system level noise emissions in an early design stage in order to predict and optimize the exhaust system performance. Engine performance and vehicle NVH characteristics are two important parameters on which the design of the exhaust system has major influence. The reduction of exhaust noise is a very important factor in controlling the exterior and interior noise levels of vehicles, particularly to reach future target values of the pass-by noise and sound engineering for the vehicle.

Nowadays, Road Load Simulators are used by automobile companies to reproduce the accurate and multi axial stresses in test parts to simulate the real loading conditions. The road conditions are simulated in lab by measuring the customer usage data by sensors like Wheel Force transducers, accelerometers, displacement sensors and strain gauges on the vehicle body and suspension parts. The acquired data is simulated in lab condition by generating ‘drive file’ using the response of the above mentioned sensors [2]. For generation of proper drive file, not only good FRF but ensuring stability of inverse FRF is also essential. Stability of the inverse FRF depends upon the simulation channels used. In this paper experimental approach has been applied for the optimization of the simulation channels to be used for simulation of normal Indian passenger car on 4 corners, 6-Axis Road Load Simulator. Time domain tests were performed to identify potential simulation channels.

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.

IC Engine Timing belt is a major noise prone area and it takes time during development to achieve acceptable NVH characteristics. In an existing engine under series production noise problem observed due to excitation of timing belt span by crank timing sprocket tooth. From vehicle perspective noise was heard in vehicle cabin at around idling RPM and a second peak observed around twice the initial RPM. This paper includes a methodology for use of computer based analytical simulation methods to predict timing belt dynamic behavior and NVH characteristics. Along with development of computer based multi body dynamic model for timing belt, validation of simulation model with actual testing was done and after correlation of testing and simulated results countermeasure were finalized based on iterations in multi body simulation model.

The air pollution and global warming has become a major problem to the society. To counter this worldwide emission norms have become more stringent in recent times and shall continue to get further stringent in the next decade. From OEMs perspective with increased complexity, it has become a necessity to use simulation methods along with model based systems approach to deal with system level complexities and reduce model development time and cost to deal with the various regulatory requirements and customer needs. The simulation models must have good correlation with the actual test results and at the same time should be less complex, fast, and integrable with other vehicle function modelling. As the vehicle fuel economy is declared in cold start condition, the fuel economy simulation model of vehicle in cold start condition is required. The present paper describes a methodology to simulate the cold start fuel economy.

Noise generated in the driveline is mainly transferred inside the passenger cabin through air (air borne noise) and through the vehicle body structure, engine mounts, cables etc. Source of the noise generation in the vehicle is mainly through the engine fluctuation (engine combustion excitations). Any change in the engine characteristics results in the change in passenger cabin noise. Also, influence of the vehicle body structure due to change in material properties also affects the NVH performance. This technical paper explains the effect of change in engine characteristics as well as change in the transfer path (material property) on the NVH performance of the gearbox and subsequently the NVH performance of vehicle.

Interior sound quality is one of the significant factors contributing to the comfort level of the occupants of a passenger car. One of the major reasons for the deterioration of interior sound quality is the booming noise. Booming noise is a low frequency (20Hz∼300Hz) structure borne noise which occurs mainly due to the powertrain excitations or road excitations. Several methods have been developed over time to identify and troubleshoot the causes of booming noise [1]. In this paper an attempt has been made to understand the booming noise by analyzing structural (panels) and acoustic (cavity) modes. Both the structural modes and the acoustic modes of the vehicle cabin were measured experimentally on a B-segment hatchback vehicle using a novel approach and the coupled modes were identified.

With more stringent emission norm coming in future, add more pressure on IC engine to improve fuel efficiency for survival in next few decades. In gasoline SI (spark ignition) engine, valve events have major influence on fuel economy, performance and exhaust emissions. Optimization of valve event demands for extensive simulation and testing to achieve balance between conflicting requirement of low end torque, maximum power output, part load fuel consumption and emission performance. Balance between these requirements will become more critical when designing low cost valve train without VVT (Variable valve timing) to reduce overall cost of engine. Higher CR (Compression ratio) is an important low cost measure to achieve higher thermal efficiency but creates issue of knocking thereby limiting low speed high load performance. The effective CR reduction by means of late intake valve closing (LIVC) is one way to achieve higher expansion ratio while keeping high geometric CR.

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.

Shielding vehicle underbody or engine room components from exhaust heat is becoming a difficult task with increasing packaging constraints, which lead to the proximity of components with high temperatures of the exhaust systems. Heat insulators are provided to protect various components from exhaust system parts. Generally the requirement of heat insulators are fixed on the basis of benchmarked temperatures measured on vehicles with similar layout, during the initial phase of vehicle design. Also various CFD techniques are available to predict the surface temperatures on components in order to determine the necessity of a heat insulator. The aforementioned techniques use radiation and convection heat transfer effects on a complete vehicle model and the overall process generally takes considerable time to provide the results. This paper deals with a theoretical approach to predict the temperatures on nearby components due to exhaust system heat.