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As part of its educational experience, the Noise & Vibration Conference begins with focused instructor-led workshops designed for those new to NVH or those looking for a refresher on a given topic.

Find out why you should attend the 2025 Noise and Vibration Conference and Exhibition.

Find out why you should attend the 2023 Noise and Vibration Conference and Exhibition.

Tractor operators prefer to drive more comfortable tractors in the recent years. The high noise and vibration levels, to which drivers of agricultural tractor are often exposed for long periods of time, have a significant part in the driver’s fatigue and may lead to substantial hearing impairment and health problems. Therefore, it is essential for an optimal cabin design to have time and cost effective analysis tools for the assessment of the noise and vibration characteristics of various design alternatives at both the early design stages and the prototype testing phase. Airborne excitation and Structure Borne excitation are two types of dynamic cabin excitations mainly cause the interior noise in a driver’s cabin. Structure-borne excitation is studied in this paper and it consists of dynamic forces, which are directly transmitted to the cabin through the cabin suspension. These transmitted forces introduce cabin vibrations, which in turn generate interior noise.

As an agricultural tractor OEM was moving a new tractor model from development into production, an objectionable cab “boom” was identified that was not present in the preproduction pilot -level tractors. The cab boom was identified as a low frequency tone causing an increase of 7 (dBA) over the level in the pilot tractors, which was deemed unacceptable. The process used by the tractor OEM engineering team to address this problem has been widely used and refined in the automotive industry, but it is relatively new in the agricultural/off-road vehicle industry. This paper describes the source-path-receiver approach that led to identifying the exhaust tip as the source and the vibro-acoustic coupling of a windshield structural mode with an acoustic cab cavity mode as the path of the boom event.

In the challenge of reducing the weight of the vehicle structures, a particular focus has to be done on the interior noise. Indeed, the weight reduction of the structure often implies an increase of the noise in the cabin. To maintain a constant acoustic performance, acoustic packages often have to be added, the challenge being that the weight of the acoustic materials added remains lower than the weight saved in the structure. In today’s engineering world, numerical simulation is the primary tool to assess the vibro-acoustic behavior of the vehicle during the design phase. To tackle the challenge of weight reduction, it is necessary to simulate accurately the vibro-acoustic response of the structure including the acoustic treatments. This paper presents the validation of a simulation method for the vibro-acoustic response of a truck cabin, taking into account the effect of acoustic treatments, in the frequency range [0-200 Hz].

In recent truck applications, single-piece large-diameter propshafts, in lieu of two-piece propshafts, have become more prevalent to reduce cost and mass. These large-diameter props, however, amplify driveline radiated noise. The challenge presented is to optimize prop shaft modal tuning to achieve acceptable radiated noise levels. Historically, CAE methods and capabilities have not been able to accurately predict propshaft airborne noise making it impossible to cascade subsystem noise requirements needed to achieve desired vehicle level performance. As a result, late and costly changes can be needed to make a given vehicle commercially acceptable for N&V performance prior to launch. This paper will cover the development of a two-step CAE method to predict modal characteristics and airborne noise sensitivities of large-diameter single piece aluminum propshafts fitted with different liner treatments.

This paper reviews the relationship between taper wheel bearing damage and vehicle noise and vibration for a body-on-frame pickup truck and a body-on-frame SUV. In addition to understanding how the different levels of bearing damage relate to vehicle noise, it also discusses the level of noise versus the damaged bearing’s position in the vehicle. For this study, the wheel bearing supplier provided front and rear bearings with various amounts of Brinell damage to the bearing raceways. The different bearings were evaluated subjectively for noise in the vehicle. After vehicle testing, the bearing raceway Brinell depths were measured to correlate the level of bearing damage to vehicle noise. The study shows the relationship between bearing Brinell dent depth and vehicle noise for body-on-frame light trucks and SUVs. The noise was most apparent in vehicles between 45 and 60 mph. For bearings with moderate levels of damage, steering inputs were required to hear noise.

The Vehicle Noise Control Engineering Academy covers a variety of vehicle noise control engineering principles and practices. There are two concurrent, specialty tracks (with some common sessions): Vehicle Interior Noise and Powertrain Noise. Participants should choose and register for the appropriate track they wish to attend. The Vehicle Interior Noise track focuses on understanding the characteristics of noise produced by different propulsion systems, including internal combustion, hybrid and electric powered vehicles and how these noises affect the sound quality of a vehicle’s interior.  

The Vehicle Noise Control Engineering Academy covers a variety of vehicle noise control engineering principles and practices. There are two concurrent, specialty tracks (with some common sessions): Powertrain Noise and Vehicle Interior Noise. Participants should choose and register for the appropriate Academy they wish to attend. The Powertrain Noise track focuses on noise and vibration control issues associated with internal combustion, hybrid and electric powered vehicles. The vehicle in this case includes passenger cars, SUVs, light trucks, off-highway vehicles, and heavy trucks.

This paper will focus whining noise on rear axles applied in mid-size trucks. Vehicle integration changes during development affect directly the gear noise perception, in which it may be intensified. Also, gear material and heat treatment choices for the rear axle need to be done carefully, taking into consideration the integration changes and also the driver usage. A lessons learned collection over the diverse aspects of a rear axle whining noise will be the basis of this paper.

This paper reviews the history of heavy truck noise legislation in the U.S. Both legislative activity and the response of vehicle and engine manufacturers are described. The cost cycle experienced by manufacturers is also described. Over a period of time, the costs involved in meeting noise regulations are reduced without increasing truck noise levels. Data is presented which shows that public complaints about truck noise are often related to modified vehicle exhaust systems. The data shows that modified exhaust systems have an especially severe effect on compression brake noise. Additional results suggest that some trucks with extensively modified exhaust systems may be able to pass the in-use noise standard.

Truck and construction seats offer a number of different challenges compared to automotive seats in the identification and characterization of Buzz, Squeak, and Rattle (BSR) noises. These seats typically have a separate air or mechanical suspension and usually a larger number and variety of mechanical adjustments and isolators. Associated vibration excitation tend to have lower frequencies with larger amplitudes. In order to test these seats for both BSR and vibration isolation a low-noise shaker with the ability to test to a minimum frequency of 1 Hz was employed. Slowly swept sine excitation was used to visualize the seat mode shapes and identify nonlinearities at low frequencies. A sample set of seat BSR sounds are described in terms of time and frequency characteristics, then analyzed using sound quality metrics.

In today’s automobile industry refined NVH performance is a key feature and of high importance governing occupant comfort and overall quality impression of vehicle. In this paper interior noise and vibration measurement is done on one of the light truck and few dominant low frequency noise booms were observed in operation range. Modal analysis was done for the cabin at virtual as well as experimental level and few modes were found close to these noise booms. Vibrations were measured across the cabin mounts and it was found that the isolation of front mounts is not effective at lower frequencies. Taking this as an input, the mount design was modified to shift the natural frequency and hence improve the isolation behavior at the lowest dominant frequency. This was followed by static and dynamic measurement of the mounts at test rig level to characterize the dynamic performance and stiffness conclusion.

This paper outlines a transient wave mechanism from an impact machinery such as punch press via computational and experimental methods. Results from the boundary element method to predict the transient acoustic field are compared with experiment by use of the fiber-optic surface acoustic intensity probe. The computational method combines an explicit and implicit methods to enhance the numerical stability and accuracy. The fiber-optic surface acoustic intensity probe which combines optical fibers and microphone will be discussed to illustrate the validity of the experimental method and hence numerical results. The improvement of the acoustic intensity probe performance will also be discussed to eliminate the phase error at higher frequency measurement and to increase the sensitivity and linearity. The comparison of the results will be described to demonstrate the capability and accuracy of the methods to identify the transient noise source generated from the impact noise.

A brief description of the representation of physical systems as idealized systems and the computation of natural frequencies is given. Using an example of an engine and power shift transmission system, it is shown that a simplified analysis can be made with small effect on the computed natural frequencies. The prevention of torsional vibrations with a power shift transmission, and the prevention of gear rattle in conventional transmissions, is discussed.

Basic knowledge of the characteristics of wire rope have been utilized to design a completely torque blanced product. Test results showing the improved properties of this product are presented, along with recommendations for use in boom support pendants and as a hoist line.

The data measured during an ISO 362 pass-by-noise test are strongly non-stationary due to the fast acceleration of the vehicle and its moving position with respect to the ISO microphone position. Nevertheless, one would like to obtain an understanding of the relative contribution of the various noise generating components during the test. Since the classical signal analysis procedures based on the FFT calculation and auto/crosspower averaging for coherence/correlation analysis are no longer applicable, as they implicitly assume signal (and process) stationarity, an approach based on Autoregressive Vector (ARV) modelling of a set of measurement signals was developed and applied. An ARV model is calculated directly from a set of time data of limited duration.

In this paper the working principle of hydraulic branch of the hydromechanical transmission is introduced, dynamic characteristic analysed, its actuating medium enclosed in the working space consists that of pump, soft pipeline and motor considered to be a torsional hydraulic spring whose torsional stiffness and damping provided. The multidegrees-of-freedom of the concentrated mass-elasticity discrete mechanics model is utilized to analyze the transmission system, and the finite element method is employed to model it, the torsional natural characteristic of the system are calculated, these provide the scientific basis for structural modification of controlling the vibration and noise.

Railroads are facing a crisis in operating costs, the urge toward reduction of unnecessary weight has become widespread and the crusade for noise abatement is no longer to be denied, according to the author. The pneumatic-tired railroad-coach not only answers these requirements, he says, but anticipates a demand for a new traveling comfort. The desire to rubberize railroad equipment is old but much fruitless research has resulted from directing it chiefly toward solid-rubber or cushion tires. Road and rail surfaces present entirely different problems so far as the tire is concerned. No uniformity of conditions obtains on highways but rails are even and smooth. A badly aligned joint such as would wreck a metal wheel makes no impression on a pneumatic tire. As simple as the tire problem may seem, its solution represents years of courageous and skillful research on the part of the Michelin company in France.