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Beside the automotive industry, where 2-cylinder inline engines are catching attention again, twin-cylinder configurations are quite usual in the small engine world. From stationary engines and range-extender use to small motorcycles up to big cruisers and K-Cars this engine architecture is used in many types of applications. Because of very good overall packaging, performance characteristics and not least the possibility of parts-commonality with 4-cylinder engines nearly every motorcycle manufacturer provides an inline twin in its model range. Especially for motorcycle applications where generally the engine is a rigid member of the frame and vibrations can be transferred directly to the rider an appropriate balancing system is required.

In the automotive industry, various simulation-based analysis methods have been suggested and applied to reduce the time and cost required to develop the engine structure to improve the NVH performance of powertrain. This simulation is helpful to set the engine design concept in the initial phase of the powertrain development schedules. However, when using the conventional simulation method with a uniformed force, the simulation results sometimes show different results than the test results. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a method for predicting the radiated noise level of a diesel engine using actual combustion excitation force. Based on the analytical radiated noise development target, we identify the major components of the engine that are beyond this development target by in the frequency range. The components of the problem found in this way are reflected in the engine design of the early development stage to shorten the development time.

Grown interest in complex modern Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) concepts has raised new challenges in the field of NVH. The switch between the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) and the Electric Motor (EM) at low speeds produces undesirable vibrations and a sudden raise of noise levels that effects the sound quality and passenger comfort achieved by the close-to-silent electric powertrain operation. Starting the ICE in the most suitable driving situation to create a seamless transition between driving modes can be the key to minimize the NVH quality impact in driver and passenger’s perception in HEVs. To integrate this important aspect in the early stages of the development and design phase, simulation technologies can be used to address the customer acceptance. By analyzing NVH measurements, the different noise components of the vehicle operation can be separated into ICE-related noise, EM-related noise and driving noise.

Due to future directives of the European Union regarding fuel consumption and CO2 emissions the automotive industry is forced to develop new and unconventional technologies. These include for example stop-start-systems, cylinder deactivation or even reduction of the number of cylinders which however lead to unusual acoustical perceptions and customer complaints. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the sound character of engines with low numbers of cylinders (2 and 3 cylinders) and also the differences to the character of the more common 4-cylinder engines. Psychoacoustic parameters are used to describe and understand the differences. Based on the gained knowledge possible potentials for improvement can be derived in the future. The used data base consists of artificial head recordings of car interior noise according to defined driving conditions measured on the AVL test track. Naturally, there are more recordings available for 4-cylinder engines than for 2- and 3-cylinder engines.

Driven by worldwide climate change, governments are introducing more stringent emission regulations with particular focus on fuel saving for CO₂ emission reduction. Downsizing and weight reduction are two of the main drivers to achieve these demanding regulations. Both aspects however might have a strong negative effect on the overall vehicle NVH behavior. Weight reduction directly influences NVH due to reduction of absorption and damping material and due to light-weight design affecting the dynamic responses of powertrain and vehicle structures. Engine downsizing however has multiple negative effects on NVH. Beside higher vibrations and speed irregularities due to lower cylinder numbers and displacements also reduction of sound quality is a critical topic that will be handled within this publication.

Modern powertrain noise investigation in the development process and during trouble shooting is a combination of experiment and simulation. In simulation in recent years main focus was set on model completeness, consideration of all excitation mechanisms and efficient and stabile numerical algorithms. By that the total response of the virtual powertrain is already comparable to the overall noise level of the real powertrain. Actual challenge is to trace back the overall response to its main excitation and noise generating mechanism as well as to their main driving parameters to support the engineer not only in reaching absolute values, but also to derive the root cause of a response or potential problem and to get hints on how to improve the specific behavior. Approaches by parameter sensitivity studies are time consuming and not unambiguous.

Today, the number of downsized engines with two or three cylinders is increasing due to an increase in fuel efficiency. However, downsized engines exhibit unbalanced interior sound in the range of their optimal engine speed, largely because of their dominant engine orders. In particular, the sound of two-cylinder engines yields half the perceived engine speed of an equivalent four-cylinder engine at the same engine speed. As a result when driving, the two-cylinder engine would be shifted to higher gears much later, diminishing the expected fuel savings. This contribution presents an active in-car sound generation system that makes a two-cylinder engine sound like the more familiar four-cylinder engine. This is done by active, load-dependent playback of signals extracted from the engine vibration through a shaker mounted on the firewall. A blind test with audio experts indicates a significant reduction of the engine speed when shifting to a higher gear.

Due to more challenging future emission legislations and the trend towards downsizing, the number of turbocharged (TC) engines, especially petrol engines, is steadily increasing. The usage of TC has high risk to cause different noise phenomena apparent in the vehicle interior which are often perceived as annoying for the passengers. In order to further improve consideration of TC topics in the development, objective judgment and monitoring of TC noise issues is of high importance. Therefore, objective parameters and corresponding tools that are especially focusing on TC noise phenomena have to be developed. One main target of these tools is to deliver an objective TC assessment in an efficient way and with minimum additional effort. Application of the criteria presented in this publication therefore allows acoustic engineers to judge the NVH behavior and annoyance of the TC with respect to its vehicle interior noise contribution.